Yamin Zakaria portrayed in his letter, ' One rule for Kilroy-Silk, another for Mahathir ', that the world bashed Dr Mahathir Mohamad but not BBC talk show host Robert Kilroy-Silk. I would likely to clearly mark the differences in the two cases to the writer.

  • Dr Mahathir is a national leader; he should know that his words carried great weight in some quarters. Kilroy-Silk is a television host; no one cares for his opinion except his viewers.
  • Dr Mahathir made that offending statement in front of a live worldwide television audience, Kilroy-Silk was only in UK and those who got the recording of it. It is hardly a comparison, unless the writer is saying that Kilroy-Silk has the same stature as Dr Mahathir or vice versa
  • The writer forgot to mention that Kilroy-Silk was suspended from BBC for his offending statement. Did Dr Mahathir get suspended?
  • British society is in great debate over Kilroy-Silk's statements and BBC 's decision to suspend him. In Dr Mahathir's case, it was business as usual.

I can go on but it is best to stop as I think there is no similarity at all between Kilroy-Silk and Dr Mahathir in both making offending statements. One got away with it and the other may have ruined his career by the looks of it.

It is too easy to fall into the trap of simply making general disparaging comments such as the writer has made about the 'West'. In effect the writer is guilty of the same offence as Kilroy-Silk in tarring everyone with the same brush