I wonder exactly what agenda the writer Notes From the Gulag is following. Permit me to be skeptical about his motives and the arguments he has put forward - it appears to be a transparent attempt to push the 'Singapore agenda' which is to internationalise security arrangements in the Malacca Straits against the expressed policy of the two littorals - Malaysia and Indonesia.

Gulag should be aware that, wishful thinking apart, the Malacca Straits littorals are Malaysia and Indonesia, not Singapore. Go look at the maritime boundaries that demarcate the Malacca Straits from the Singapore Straits.

Singapore spends a reported 5-6 percent of its GDP on defence every year, consistently, in good times and bad (not the 4.9 perecent reported in the CIA publication); indeed some analysts have pegged the republic's defence expenditure at closer to eight percent.

One would ask, if one were to be mischievous, why does Singapore choose to be a heavily-armed porcupine in a constant state of paranoia? Is it the desire to be seen as the only good kid in a bad neighbourhood?

To preserve Singapore as the only place that foreign investors should consider in the region? To maintain the republic as the one hub in the region? Or the need to preserve the essential 'Chineseness' of the country in a neighbourhood of expanding Muslim populations?

You see? I can spin conspiracy theories as well as the next guy.

Be that as it may, does Gulag believe that the Malaysian government is not serious about its territorial integrity and national sovereignty? Or the fact that Malaysia does not have the luxury of the compact space of a city-state?

Or that there are many other competing priorities for government spending? Or the fact that every time Malaysia makes a major purchase of military assets, there will be a whole raft of critical commentaries and analyses in the Singapore media - the nub of which are that the Singapore Armed Forces are well ahead of their counterparts in the region and can easily whip their weight in wild cats?

I also raised the legitimate question as to why no one is taking Indonesia to task for the fact that the great majority of the pirate attacks in the Malacca Straits originate from its shores? I guess that discretion is the better part of valour here, and that people in certain quarters tip-toe very carefully around the neighbourhood gorilla.

But that leaves Malaysia as the punching bag for any number of armchair generals out there.

I would hate to see this whole issue of security in the Malacca Straits develop into yet another of those flashpoints between Malaysia and Singapore that constantly bedevil the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Yet there are always the likes of Gulag to stir the pot and muddy the waters. Aided and abetted, of course, by any number of analysts and journalists.