Paul Warren is right in his letter Suu Kyi and Anwar in same boat to say that Anwar Ibrahim is in fact Malaysia's Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Because of the similar moral inability to rule by peaceful and intelligent persuasion, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's regime can indeed be compared to the junta in Burma.

However, while many Malaysians respect and admire foreign heroes like Aung Sang Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Corazon Aquino and the Palestinian people, they should not use the same yardsticks to measure our own fighters like Anwar Ibrahim, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, Tian Chua, Hishammuddin Rais and other ISA detainees.

Barisan Nasional's propaganda has done much to poison malleable minds. The party leaders' proclamation to admire and respect these foreign heroes fighting for democracy and human rights are actually covering up or whitewashing their guilt of violating human rights and democracy on homeground.

By proclaiming aloud to the whole world that they support Nelson Mandela, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, Corazon Aquino or the Palestinian people, they put on the masks of democrats and human rights advocates. How can they claim to be so when they justify the many indefinite-detentions-without-trial and other anti-democratic measures against domestic dissents to gullible Malaysians as enforcing 'national security'?

It is nothing but pure hypocrisy to display admiration for the foreign fighters while they mete out the same injustice to our own fighters back home.