I refer to the letter Dam farce very telling of ministry's competence (April 5) by Vince of the US.

He has to be excused for he could not have known what it takes to be a minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

One has to be an absolute zombie or a great liar to be able to put on a straight face and provide such an idiotic reply to the question with a straight face. You should believe that the minister actually believes in the truth of El Nino causing the dam to fail when it did not work beyond its first day of operation.

And to survive and progress within the government hierarchy, you must believe that the ministry which provided the El Nino excuse in parliament also actually believes in the truth of that statement. If you can do that, then you can surely maintain your own sanity. And that is about the only reason you need to do that too.

After all when the next general election takes place, a majority of the population are also going to show you how much they believe in that reply! So to survive, it would be advisable that you only consider maintaining your own sanity... don't bother about anybody else's!