I refer to the report, Apologise first, DAP tells Hishammuddin , and would like to correct Lim Kit Siang's perception that Hishammuddin's antics with a keris during the recent Umno general assembly had led to disquiet in the Chinese Malaysian community. To the contrary, it had also led to a disquietude state of affairs among peace-loving Malaysians.

Umno Youth's claim that Ronnie Liu's article 'belittled' the late Tunku Abdul Rahman's role in the nation's struggle for independence, and if it is to be debated, it should be in a mature and unemotional manner as it is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.

In reality, the former Umno-led government in its unique way had already 'belittled' the late Tunku Abdul Rahman a long time ago by not declaring a public holiday as a mark of respect when this esteemed statesman passed away. That's the kind respect our 'Bapa Kemerdekaan' got from the government .

Umno Youth should instead be the catalyst in tackling these issues by being part of the solution rather than a problem and this list is not exhaustive:

1. To uplift Malaysia's competitive ranking which fell to the 28th spot this year on The International Institute of Management Development's World Competitiveness Yearbook from 16th last year. The "contributing" factors for this ranking are based on government's efficiencies especially in terms of the institutional framework and bureaucracy.

2. To share in action and spirit to the world that Malaysia is not to be perceived as a security risk attributed to Islamic terrorist activity as desired by the prime minister recently ( We must counter terrorism perception: Abdullah ). The keris incident is a form of terrorism towards the rakyat.

3. To tackle on the worsening crisis of higher education.

4 To acknowledge the contributions of leaders to democracy including the Gerakan founder, the late Tan Chee Khoon and the late Seenivasagam brothers of Ipoh.

5. To persist that affirmative action policies should be based on need rather than ethnicity.

6. To probe into an array of alleged offences including human rights infringements, abuse of power, religious persecution and legal violations.

Let us ponder what Eugene McCarthy once said: "This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country."