Although expressed in seemingly 'sensible' and 'reasonable' language, letter writer Jeffrey's Keep domestic affairs out of Pope-PM meeting is, in essence, asking Malaysians, especially Christians to hide the whole truth from the world and the Holy See, possibly hoping to misinform and disinform decision-makers outside Malaysia like the Pope.

To only present half-truths at a critical moment is not only incompatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church, but the vain effort will also be futile in this age of global transparency and revolution in communication technology. Half-truths, it is often said, are actually lies.

As far as justice and human rights are concerned, there should not be any false dichotomy or contrived distinctions between 'domestic' and 'international' because, like Islam, the human concerns of the Catholic Church are universal and humanistic. It is for this reason that a Polish Pope John Paul II, discusses with a Malaysian prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on the issue of Palestine.

If Jeffery's contrived dichotomy between 'domestic' and 'international' is accepted, the premise of the Pope-Mahathir meeting would no longer be valid.

On the contrary, if we can accept a Polish (European) Pope talking to a Malaysian (Asian) Prime Minister on an issue in the Middle East (Palestine), then we must also accept the call for human rights in Malaysia to be discussed. Double standard and doublespeak are despicable.

Human rights in Malaysia, like the Palestinian issue, are certainly of international or universal concern. For example, both the United States and the European Union (EU) are still actively concerned with the political incarceration of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim and the other leaders of Keadilan.

The consistent and principled concern for human rights violation in Malaysia even transcends the Democrat-Republican divide in the United States, as president George W Bush recently reiterated the position of the former Clinton Administration during Mahathir's visit to the White House. German ambassador to Malaysia, Juergen AR Staks, was also recently quoted by malaysiakini as calling for the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA).

For these simple reasons and simple truths, I commend Pax Romana

, an international association of Catholic intellectuals and professionals, as well as Keadilan Youth for completing the whole truth for the benefit of justice and social peace in Malaysia.