Ours is a democratic country and as such Rose has every right to heap her praises on what is obviously her endeared Dr Mahathir Mohamad. However, in the following areas mentioned in her letter , it might be useful to put things in perspective.

In corruption, she is right that we are probably cleaner than many of our neighbouring countries on her list although she quite cleverly avoid comparison with Singapore on this point.

In defending Proton, however, she could not help taking a dig at Singapore. What wasn't mentioned was, of course, that the higher car prices there are not aimed at protecting any make or model. In our case, we probably did it to satisfy the big ego of one man.

Coming to education, again she is quite right that we are attracting some foreigners to our shores. As we already have such excellent colleges by her standards, I wonder why so many of our students, including those sponsored by the government, chose to go overseas every year at great cost.

It is a fact that our country is politically stable with no history of any political assassinations or coups. However, I wonder if our first PM was not brought down by a very cunning and ambitious politician. We can only hope that Pak Lah does not suffer the same fate.

Finally, I totally agree with Rose that our country is blessed with no natural disasters thus far. I can only hope she is not crediting this to the power and effort of anyone as much as she adores someone.

I am a retiree from the private sector and am not a member of any political party, past or present. I adore our past leaders like Tunku, Razak, and Hussein Onn. They may not have been the smartest or the ones who had put up any tall buildings or launched a motorcar industry to remind people of their legacy but they were leaders who were humble, sincere and, more importantly, they were leaders with integrity.

I have not praised Dr M because to do so would be superfluous since Rose has already done so much in marching to his drumbeat.