How the world has changed. We were used to national leaders trained in diplomacy; unless of course, if we are at war.

We were told that our ex-prime minister's speech at the recent Organisation of Islamic Conference meeting should be read in full, and that his words should not be taken out of context.

I have read most of the arguments for , as well as against what he said. Yet, the real test should be to ask an average person what he thinks about the speech.

For whatever reason, the truth is that he had included in his speech an assertion which most Western leaders found deplorable. With or without the help of speechwriters, Dr Mahathir Mohamad should have been able to detect the implied message in it.

However, given the speech and the outrage it engendered, most leaders would offer an apology - if the intention was not to offend.

But with Dr Mahathir, as always, sorry seems to be the hardest word. Days later, despite the criticism, he reiterated what he said and claimed that his statement was true.

As an average person, I find his speech, which was given to leaders of almost all the Muslim nations, to very anti-Jew, anti-Semitic or even anti-Israel. (To the average person, such distinctions are not apparent.) If so, why deny it? By denying, it only shows the hypocrisy of it.

This reminded me of his "shoo them" comment many years ago when dealing with the Vietnamese boat people. I cannot possibly imagine him using 'shoo' instead of 'shoot' in the context of his displeasure over the increasing number landing along the east coast of the peninsula. But he was fairly new then and therefore was quite bothered by international condemnation.

After 22 years of autocratic rule, he knows he can get away with what he said without much problem. Even when the US Senate passed a motion which might possibly cut their meagre US$1.2 million in aid, his reaction was similar to a child, when given punishment, had said: "see? no pain!"

Such small amounts are petty cash to him or his ministers. It is probably only equivalent to the daily cost of maintaining Putrajaya!