I refer to Santik's When shooting mouth off hurts . He questioned what I meant by the phrase "just politics". The Macquarie dictionary provides a number of definitions for "politics", some of which are:

  • The science or art of political government

  • The practice or profession of conducting political affairs

  • Political methods or manoeuvres

  • The use of underhanded or unscrupulous methods in obtaining power or advancement within an organisation

    • Depending on whether you love or hate Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad you can select your choice of definitions. But my point was, and still is, all politicians will always engage in politics they have to. You can either take their utterances with total belief or disbelief, a pinch of salt, disappointment, a laugh or even anger.

    Certainly criticism of government policy is a feature of the democratic process, but is it necessary to launch such a vehement assault on what is basically an inconsequential issue as 'giving someone a bloody nose for launching a pre-emptive strike'?

    It is no different from John Howard telling the Australian people that he would be prepared to conduct a pre-emptive strike on another country. While I personally would ignore Howard's statement (but then I am not a politician playing politics) I do not see how Mahathir's riposte can hurt Malaysians. Both statements are meant for domestic consumption, and both PMs couldn't care less how outsiders view these statements.

    You don't have to like Mahathir, but I find the dislike for him expressed in the criticism to be so intense as to be unhealthy or non-constructive. Some people like Delimma thinks Mahathir is great, just as some Australians believe Howard is the man to lead their country, especially for daring to declare that he would launch a pre-emptive strike.

    It would be more productive if the debates on, or criticisms of, various Malaysian or international affairs, as expressed in malaysiakini , deal with the issues rather than the personalities. Some humour would also be welcome. Let's leave out the vitriol and lighten up a bit (unless we too want to play "politics").

    By the way, let me qualify myself. I am a Chinese Malaysian, and like Manjit Bhatia reside in Australia. Contrary to Delimma's assertion, Australia is not a white supremacist or racist country.

    I have resided here for 15 years, and while there are a few small pockets of intolerance (no different to the situation in every country on earth) I have found Australians to be very tolerant. The culture is of course different to that of Malaysia, but as the saying goes Lain padang, lain belalang .