I cannot help but feel mortified by a photo I saw in the papers early in the morning on Aug 31 which rudely dampened my Merdeka spirit. In a very short space of time, Christians in Malaysia have had two insults shoved at them.

Firstly by a Tamil daily, which published a picture of Jesus Christ holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. And on our National Day, a day where all Malaysians should be celebrating racial unity, which comes with respect and tolerance for each other, The New Straits Times published a picture of Osama Bin Laden depicted as Jesus Christ!

And this happens in the same country that unanimously supported the suspension of a Sarawakian tabloid that carried caricatures of Prophet Muhammad originally from a Danish newspaper.

Disappointment is the most minute of my ill-feelings and I urge the relevant authorities to rectify this violation of the basic sensitivities by the NST towards another's religion and beliefs.