I must commend the government o­n its efforts to be the world's best host as seen in the recently concluded Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Its decision to put everyone in the dark about the o­ngoing dengue outbreak is especially brilliant. We must understand this position, because national pride is at stake.

The NAM delegates mustn't be distracted by some simple disease going around. The Iraq issue is bigger than dengue.

Besides, it really is no big deal - I'm sure Health Minister Chua Jui Meng would put the current life-threatening outbreak as just a regular occurrence that takes place every two-three years or so, after the foot and mouth disease, the Coxsackie outbreak, Japanese Encephalitis, Nipah.... Dengue and malaria just fills in the boring periods in between.

My uncle who came down with dengue earlier this week never knew about the disease at large. Like the rest, he'll just have to take the pain in the name of Malaysia Boleh! Should the worst happen we'll think of him as dying for the nation.

Thank you, government of Malaysia. I hope the dengue news blackout will continue until after Formula 1 season.

Can't have some silly disease outbreak scaring off the likes of Schumacher and Barichello now, can we?