All the hoo hah about the Economist magazine is very amusing, except that the ' hot air ' is expressed in very serious tones by our politicians.

This comes o­n the heels of the ' public barbeque ' of o­ne Shamsul Akmar, a journalist who had the audacity to criticise a certain minister in the print media. Perhaps he made the mistake of taking at face value the assurances of the government that he may report freely.

I wonder how many of these 'raving and ranting' politicians actually read the articles in the Economist which were generally well-researched and fairly objective and indeed, o­n balance, quite favourable to Malaysia and its government. Indeed, it is a measure of how far Malaysia has come in its development as a nation that such a prestigious magazine devoted nine very detailed articles to us.

Sadly, our politicians chose to take a few apparently negative comments in the articles out of context, instead of considering that Malaysia obtained free international publicity for its achievements as a nation and its potentials as an investment destination. Thanks to the hoo hah though, the readership of this particular issue of the magazine in Malaysia must have multiplied a thousand fold.

Even more regrettable, our potential future leaders in the persons of the Puteri Umno chief and the Kedah Umno Youth chief called for a ban o­n the magazine, with the latter even organising a 'magazine burning' reminiscent of the 'book burning' of darker ages.

On a separate issue, the Selangor Menteri Besar was quoted in a local tabloid to have said in the state assembly that "the Malays are a better race than the Arabs". The logic and relevance of this statement truly defies comprehension.

It is perhaps timely for us to take a respite from 'Bush bashing' to realise that the notion of "if you are not for me, you are against me" is alive and kicking in our so-called progressive and modern country that is vying for 'developed nation' status by 2020.

If this is the mentality and tolerance levels of our future leaders, Malaysians have good reason to be concerned.