Do you have that sinking feeling?

It's getting worse and worse.

Y'know, when the infamous Lingam video surfaced last month, there was such a high expectancy on the government to right whatever was wrong. A golden opportunity, so to speak, to emerge from the incident smelling like roses.

When the deputy prime minister announced the formation of a three-man panel of inquiry to look into the video, I thought - together with tens of thousands others - that, a-ha, finally we'll get to the bottom of this scandal-in-the-making.

But then, we were told later that this panel has no power. Someone suggested that what we needed was a Royal Commission and this was what the Bar Council wanted too. This was included in the memorandum that the Bar Council had presented to the government during their March For Justice.

So we were now told that this was a toothless panel and all that they could do was to verify the authenticity of the video. C'mon ... you mean the video still need to be authenticated or else it will go the way of the other infamous incident - the Vijandran tapes?? You mean, just by looking at the footage cannot convince the government that Lingam's face wasn't superimposed on the man in the video, meh? Wow!

And now today, I learnt that the toothless panel with no power has even finer terms of reference. During their investigation, the panelists can't even call up witnesses to give evidence. So what have they to refer to, if not people connected to the video? Sadly, just the reports that the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Attorney-General's Office will prepare. They'll have to base their decisions on whatever's written and recommended in these reports.

It's stupid. You might as well call the whole damn thing off. No need for this so-called three-man panel whose terms of reference is limited to making a decision on the authenticity of the video based on how extensive the ACA and the AG Office can investigate. Just let the Cabinet make the decision, lah, and spare us the show. What a farce it may turn out to be.