I refer to the report Indonesia, Malaysia must remain 'best of friends' .

Based on my observation of the recent past, our Malaysian government has always been very diplomatic and accommodating whenever dealing with its Indonesian counterpart, no matter what the issue was, grave or trivial. Even when it was about long-standing, recurring issues such as the 'seasonal' haze which had posed a serious health hazard to Malaysians from all walks of life.

Compare that with the way our government deals with our (geographically) closest neighbours, Thailand and (especially) Singapore. Every issue seems to be dealt with contentiously with sparks ever ready to fly.

For instance, take the current southern Thailand issue, which prompted so much anti-Thai sentiment that at one point there have been calls from certain quarters to boycott Thai-made goods. Fortunately, our government was quick enough to pacify those certain quarters and prevent that from happening for otherwise Bangkok-KL relations would have further deteriorated.

Now, let's travel back in time to the 1998 anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia. Does anyone recall any response to and/or condemnation of the incident from our government that was anything close to the response given to the current southern Thai issue, in terms of gravity and urgency?

Now let us consider how our government deals with Singapore, from the water issue to the current proposal to construct a new elevated bridge to replace the existing Causeway. Everything seems to be dealt with contentiously.

The root cause to all this, I believe lies in the commonly referred to 'Abang-adik syndrome'. As long as Malaysians continue to view Singapore as the 'adik' (when Singaporeans never view Malaysia as its 'abang') and that it should be more accommodating in whatever bilateral issues, the relationship between the two countries will never improve.

As regards to Jakarta-KL relations, as long as the government (Umno) takes the view that it is "imperative for common ground to be found" merely because the other party is of the same race and descent as themselves, this syndrome will continue to plague Malaysia's foreign relations.

Unless and until our leaders learn to let go of their clinging to the past and stop adopting double standards in foreign relations, there will always be a stumbling block to Malaysia having a healthy relationship with other countries. Race and religion should be separated from diplomacy.