To Alexander Paul who responded

to my letter dated Feb 19; my main point was, "it is simply a waste of public money and time to stage an emergency session of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) o­n the Iraq crisis".

We are giving too much emphasis o­n world politics and willingly spending so much of taxpayers' money o­n the issues which obviously will not bring much return to our people and country. Yes, of course there are times we have to be involved in world politics and should even take a leading role, but in this case (staging the OIC meeting), I do not think it is worth all the trouble and the taxpayers' money. I still believe money should be better spent helping millions of our needy citizens.

I also disagree with Alexander Paul's remark that "being a member of the OIC is no more taking the 'side' of Muslim nations, as being a member of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) would mean that you take the side of nations with market economies". It is sad to see that in these days religion has been turned into a 'victim' by some groups of people - I think we should not emphasise or group ourselves so much in the name of religion when it comes to world politics.

When it concerns the world politics, I think we should base our stand more o­n the humanitarian grounds - free of any religious affiliation - where we are all equal in God's eyes. We are all in need of food, shelter and security. Religion should be brought in o­nly when we are discussing issues of a spiritual nature, and should not be used as the dividing line between East and West.

Religion is best kept out of world politics, and as pure as possible for spiritual matters. I do not think the world will be happy to see 'Organisation of Christian Conference' or 'Organisation of Hindu (Buddhist, etc.) Conference' meddling in world politics.

We have to be careful with religion because religion can rouse strong sentimental tension among the world population. Above all, do not forget that Malaysia is a multireligious and multiracial country, thus we must play any role appropriately without leaving any group out. I am sure many Malaysians do not agree that Malaysia is an Islamic state as what Premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad wishes the citizens and the world to believe.