I refer to the statement by Dr Mahathir Mohamad about the way arrangements were made to secure a meeting between him and President George W Bush in May 2002.

He described how it was set up with the help of a lobbyist, upon payment of US$300,000 (and, we have learned from other sources, with the granting of other favours). He had the gall to say that this was the normal avenue for arranging meetings with the president of the US, whereas it was surely far more normal for our own embassy to undertake the task.

Mahathir still seems unwilling to admit that his own repeated offensive public statements (read: the Jews and their role in the war on terror) had made him persona non grata in the US, and consequently he had to use the backdoor to try and gain access to President Bush.

Even more outrageous was his claim that the method used to arrange the meeting with Bush did not constitute corruption. If this were true, why did Abramoff go to such lengths to hide the deal from official US scrutiny? And why, now that the details have been exposed, is he in such hot soup and facing possible legal action?

It is deeply disturbing that a (former) top leader of our government is apparently unable to recognise an obvious form of corruption, and even more disturbing that he considers it normal.

If this ignorance is widespread among our leaders - and remember, many of Mahathir s ministers are still in the government - no wonder our efforts to eradicate corruption are failing to produce results.