Shaukat Ali took exception to my being an "ardent critic" of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his regime. He also took a jab at Kim Quek who, through his frequent contributions to malaysiakini , disturbs Shaukat for having joined the likes of me.

What is more, Shaukat suspects that Quek and I may both have become 'unwitting surrogates' of presumably foreign powers that don't wish Malaysia to achieve prosperity.

Either Shaukat has been reading one too many Mahathir-authored conspiracy theories (read: banalities), or else he sleeps with a picture of Mahathir under his pillow. Again I'll let the eloquent Quek speak for himself.

I am, however, thoroughly bemused by Shaukat's criticisms at two levels: one, his nave defence of the establishment, and he's completely entitled to be nave; and two, his fanciful Mahathir Putrajaya-fairyland ideology by which nobody has a right to criticise Mahathir or his government.

Shaukat presses that my right to criticise can only be legitimate if I enter what he calls the "democratic way of doing things," presumably in Malaysia, by becoming politically active, like other political parties, in the country. Shaukat's too clever by halves: he, like Mahathir, chooses to define democracy to suit his own predilections; yet he, like Mahathir, condemns the West for doing the same. Such stunning hypocrisy, but I suppose Shaukat has a virtuous teacher in Mahathir.

Many years ago, during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, a renown Malaysian academic lamented to me that only those who live in Malaysia should write about Malaysia. Of course I laughed then, as I'm laughing now at Shaukat's ridiculous suggestion - a case of 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil'. Put differently: the gag, or the ISA.

Meanwhile the Mahathir regime is allowed to do evil. That's because it is unchecked by either scared or complacent and apathetic Malaysians from within. This includes the opposition political parties, all of whom are lame, unimaginative and suffer from tunnel-vision on the one hand and chauvinism on the other hand - much like the Barisan Nasional.

Only the BN has coercive state power to ensure regime survival. And add the mainstream media, whose soul has long been bought by its political masters.

So much for Shaukat's "democratic way of doing things".

For all the huffing and puffing by Shaukat - he, like others before him who have criticised me for daring to criticise Mahathir and his corrupt regime - however conveniently avoids getting to the guts of what people like Quek and I do say or write. If Shaukat is clever, he should address specific issues raised by us instead of contracting Mahathir's treacherous xenophobia virus.