I read the statement attributed to our PM by a leading local daily where he said, “The number of countries which supported Malaysia exceeded that of the previous time...”

Firstly, we should be proud that a small country like ours can be viewed as being important enough to play a role in world politics. Secondly, in line with our international role as an overseer of world security, we should clean up our national security lapses.

The rising incidents of militancy, people rushing to serve in illegal ‘jihads’, verbal threats of bodily harm and the burning of sacred texts, and religious and racial intolerance are very worrying indeed. The constant breaches of Sabah’s borders by armed terrorists reflect badly on our police and armed forces despite the billions allocated in the budget to upgrade them.

One must ask where is the money going if our competency is tested and proven weak repeatedly by a rag-tag team of thugs.

Finally, in the last vote count for a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Malaysia received 174 of the 176 votes. Only two countries voted against. This time, we got 187 of the 192 votes. Did we really do better?

RAMESH RAJARATNAM reads the newspapers and notices the mathematical errors.