In his recent attempt to argue what the PM should be, M Bakri Musa said that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should not be "a pope".

He goes on to give his definition of a pope - "someone content with delivering sermons" and one with a "put-on piety and who is busy dispensing homilies"!

I find this comparison most unnecessary and insensitive and in fact even inaccurate especially when applied to the present pope - John Paul II.

Alas, if he was merely busy dispensing homilies he would not have been able to be the prime mover in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe - a fact publicly acknowledge by Gorbachev himself.

Further, no one has spurred on and promoted Christian-Muslim relations than Pope John Paul, who, far from merely "dispensing homilies" have left the Vatican on many an occasion to dialogue and even seek reconciliation with Muslim leaders worldwide.

I do not expect Bakri to say nice things about the pope, but while he is busy dispensing his opinions, a little respect for and sensitivity to the office of the religious leader, surely, is not too much to ask for?