I with dismay read the report of Uthayakumar returning to Malaysia after having received guarantees for his personal safety from Minister in Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

Uthayakumar may not be a coward but the fact is a lot of brave ones are not that perceptive, and Uthayakumar surely seems to fit the bill.

The fact is Nazri does not have the capacity to give any guarantee for anyone's personal safety. Just because he is a minister does not necessarily mean he is the government. He will himself surely deny that whatever he said was said in his personal capacity, therefore exonerating himself in his ministerial capacity.

All his other colleagues will also deny that Nazri represented their position.

It will do Uthayakumar a lot of good to recall what happened to Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law and to also look at Irene Fernandez's own predicament. You don't embarrass the Malaysian government and hope to live in peace over here.