Shaukat Ali in his letter shows support for the new causeway bridge and is overly sensitive to criticism of it.

I feel that Messrs Kim , Manjit and whoever else have every right to express themselves on any issues that they are unhappy with. As long as the arguments are sensible, we should not be depriving these so-called armchair critics their say.

Shaukat is quick to jump to the conclusion that these types of critics do not wish Malaysia well and proceeds amazingly to urge them to become political figures first.

Both Kim Quek and Manjit may already be involved in some capacity in politics but even if they are not, I do not see why is must be a pre-requisite to criticise the government.

Mahathir as we all know has a penchant for walking off the beaten track and it can only be expected that he will have many detractors who are more accustomed to the tried and tested way.

In fact, he takes great pride in his 'maverick' ways and nothing gives him more pleasure than to make people eat their words. Point in case are our Ringgit peg and not getting IMF help, for which he has been widely praised.

But does that mean we have to accept all his grand plans unquestioningly especially when it involves billions of dollars of taxpayers money. Where is the transparency and accountability in the decisions? We have gone down this road before, remember Perwaja, Proton to name two although there may be more.

Mahathir will not be around in three months and who will be left holding the baby if it is not ultimately us and our future generations.

We are now building a 'crooked half' bridge and so far there has not been a strong case made for spending such a big sum on it especially in this economic climate.

As Kim Quek had alluded to, we can only hope that ultimately it would not become the most visible and stark monument of Mahathir's legacy of waste. I'm sure like me Kim Quek will be most happy to eat his words.