In his letter, ' Like it or not, the Tunku Tapes have historical value ' (Jan 7), Anuar Rashid wrote:

"Readers who complained about the release of K Das' The Tunku Tapes should read the whole book and not just the seven chapters released by malaysiakini . The selected seven chapters, taken in isolation, may not do justice to the entire book."

Indeed yes, and I'll be getting my own copy the next time I'm around MPH or Times.

However, there are some letter writers who seem to think that Tunku Abdul Rahman was some sort of saint which he certainly isn't. Instead he supported policies like the Bumiputra policy (the forerunner of the New Economic Policy) and he did not seek to abolish the Internal Security Act during his time as prime minister. During that time, there were many labour leaders and left-wing activists including doctors, lawyers and politicians like the late Ahmad Boestamam who were detained under the ISA.

Corruption also wasn't as bad during his time and of course Tunku was more accommodating to other races and generally more liberal than his successors but it's only a matter of degree. He never renounced his stand on these issues after he had stepped down as prime minister, so let's not make him out to be some sort of angel.

It's funny nobody says "beloved Onn Jaffar" for his multi-racial stand which got him kicked out of Umno, or "beloved anybody else" in the opposition parties who advocate a multi-racial Malaysia.