In his column in The Star on March 25, VK Chin writes in 'No Need to Overreact Over Incident' a piece that is o­nly possible by a mind infused with a patronising disposition. He should have let the issue of the police round-up of Indian nationals in Brickfields well alone.

The Star would have done the country and its leaders some service if o­nly it had not attempted to try and show the Indian government in bad light. Instead it now puts the Malaysian leaders into damage control mode o­nce again.

Giving then acting Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi the benefit of the doubt, his apology to the Indian government appeared sincere enough. And from India's response, as well as its enlightened media, the apology would seem to have been well received.

Yet VK Chin's revisit this episode just to show how far The Star can go in extolling its loyalty and subservience to Umno.

- Does The Star not realise that Pak Lah has already done the right thing in acknowledging the mistakes of the police?

- Does The Star not see the good cultural etiquette the government exercised in dealing with the matter o­nce the gravity of the issue was recognised?

- Does The Star not know that when Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar suggested that "the police were just carrying their duties", that he had erred in diplomacy?

Surely VK Chin cannot deny that defacing a passport is equivalent to damaging the property of the government that issued it. When the Malaysian police is engaged in any violent act, this can easily be denied and any evidence of it neutered.

But surely no o­ne expects us to believe that the Indian nationals would have defaced their own passports, running the risk of engaging in Indian bureaucracy in getting a replacement!

VK Chin completely ignored the fact that the initial complaints by the Indians about the raid fell almost o­n deaf ears. Even The Star did not deem it fit for its front page.

The foreign affairs minister was not even attempting an explanation, excuse or an apology when he said that "the police were just carrying out their duties".

We were just supposed to accept it as reported by The Star as we were supposed to also believe that former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim had inflicted the black eye o­n himself!

VK Chin suggests that the raid was blown out of proportion by the media; that Malaysia needed time to investigate the incident; and that there was a perception that the government would not be ready to apologise over the incident.

Well, it took four days before the acting Prime Minister called up the Inspector General of Police to carry out an immediate investigation and to report back to him o­n the findings. This was o­nly after India started piling up all the different ways it was going to economically hit back at Malaysia and after over 40 of those Indian professionals had returned to India in disgust.

India also had to boycott the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament and had to tell our Health Minister Chua Jui Meng that they were not free to entertain him. O­nly then did Pak Lah respond.

We all ought to be ashamed of ourselves that it was o­nly upon facing such threats that we could even acknowledge that we could have erred.

As to having the matter blown out of proportion, may I remind him of all the vitriol poured over by The Star when Rafidah Aziz was sniffed at by a security dog at an Australian airport, or the matter of Pak Lah being asked to remove his shoes somewhere in America.

Maybe VK Chin would like to find out how his government would respond to him if some foreign authority were to deface his Malaysian passport.

With the apology, there would have been some element of closure to the Palm Court raid. But VK Chin's and The Star's attempt at currying favour from the Umno-led government has opened up wounds which I am sure Pak Lah would have preferred had been left well alone.