Call me a cynic but what Distressed from Edinburgh relayed in the letter Speechless in UK, too? is to be expected in the present cultural milieu in Malaysia.

May I offer a word of advice to Distressed: Had the organisers of the event been 'smart' enough, they would have advertised the event devoting a large portion of space, time and all to shower accolades on the 'greatest Malaysian thinker' that ever was Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

They will then see all sorts of benefits flowing in...be it financial sponsorships, free meals, and all the officials being flown in from Kuala Lumpur just to be seen and photographed at the event. Never mind if the substance of the meeting is zilch!

On a serious note, Barisan Nasional and especially Umno is working very hard to 'dumb down' the Malays. Malays will find it harder and harder to discuss issues on a rational or partisan basis. The milieu now is that everything uttered by Mahathir and his cabinet deserved to cast in stone for those words are words of wisdom and are well thought of and they are regarded as the truth.

In the present climate, no BN or Umno can do wrong. Illegal immigrants need to be beaten and jailed (in at least one case, allegedly raped) but their employers are faultless (what do you say about administration of justice?), the Federal Court ruled that ISA detention is illegal but the minister in charge not only flipped his finger at the court and country, but there also appears to be a deafening silence about the government's violation of the law from all sorts of quarters.

Presently, the situation is that only BN and Umno have ideas and all others (read non-BN and non-Umno) are dumped and they'd better shut up or be locked up!

The Malaysian elected representatives have a different worldview. They think that once elected or in a position of leadership, they can talk down to their own voters. Just read the Malaysian dailies.

Ministers and leader always tell the population what to do. No one really gives a damn and listens to what the masses want. They can sleep or worse, be absent from Parliament without any repercussions. They simply 'forget' they were elected to represent their constituents to the Parliament.

So, Disgusted can take solace that he or she is in the UK. Being in the UK provides Disgusted with some safety net that typical Malaysians in Malaysia do not have. If Disgusted is fearful of discussing issues openly in the UK fearing that Malaysian secret police or spies are all around him, then Disgusted can fear for the fate of Malaysia and its people unless you are a crony of the mighty who are a thousand times worse off than Disgusted in every aspect (you name it). God bless Malaysia.