It was the right thing to do, to put off the end of amnesty for undocumented migrants on Dec 31 last year after the Dec 26 tsunami tragedy.

Thus it seemed odd that Najib Razak tagged the initial postponement to a specific request from the Indonesian government. He was acceding to that request to "show that we sympathise with the calamity the Indonesian people and government face."

Surely nobody would question Malaysia for that decision. Malaysia herself suffered casualties and devastation in her northern states. It would have appeared more gracious as the right thing to do without prompting from any quarter. Najib's approach implies that, if not for the request, Malaysia has no qualms whatsoever to arrest, detain and punish the "illegals".