I refer to the attacks on DAP in malaysiakini 's letters column. While I do not fully agree with party national chairperson Lim Kit Siang, I would give him credit as the man who has helped Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad most in making Malaysia a developed and industrialised country.

He is the unsung hero who is often dismissed by the BN government as a pest who causes more harm than good. I say he actually helped BN and Mahathir by pointing out in his cruel-but-kind manner where the ruling party and its autocratic boss have gone wrong.

Mahathir may like a Lee Lam Thye or a Koh Tsu Koon. He likes gentleman critics, just as any other autocrat (including Lee Kuan Yew) would. But gentlemen are bad for dictators. They are persons who pamper dictators.

Great leader as he is, Mahathir should with all humility, and before his retirement, acknowledge that Kit Siang has helped him most for pointing out where things have gone wrong, and by that, gives the PM a second opinion on everything the ruling party wants to impose on us.

Amongst all the Chinese leaders in the world today, none, not even Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Chiang Kai Shek, Lee Kuan Yew or Goh Chok Tong (who all have blood on their hands) can match Kit Siang and his convictions for a democratic and humane Chinese world.