I refer to the letter Ringgit: Bank Negara has miserably failed. I am as concerned as HL over the diminished ringgit but I think it is unfair to blame it on the central bank. It is true the bank is responsible for managing the ringgit under the Central Bank Act.

But the bank is only 'independent within the government' as its governor is responsible to the finance minister. The state of economy is the combined effect of the fiscal policies and the lesser monetary policies. Only the latter comes under the central bank.

The true cause or causes of the weakened ringgit is buried under tons of OSA documents. But I venture to make a guess. The development policies, post-May 13, saw plenty of unrestrained development expenditure leading to a gradual fall in the ringgit's value.

Just as any with goods or commodities, the ringgit's value is determined by supply and demand meaning the bigger the government spending, the greater the demand for foreign currencies because of the need for imports.

The biggest drop in the ringgit's value came about during the1997 financial crisis. I believe the undertaking of several mega-projects also created an euphoria of prosperity. The powers-that-be even boasted that Malaysian could teach the world about development.

This succeeded in attracting hordes of 'hot money' but also masked the fact of our over-spending.

When the currency predators saw this, the ringgit came under their attack. 'Hot money' ran out as quickly as it came in. The nouveau rich quickly packed their bags of wealth and left. So this result in a run on the ringgit. One Singaporean dollar came to cost RM3.