M Kamarulzaman's response to my earlier letter, while appreciated, does not make sense ([#1] Opposition will always blame the ruling power [/#], March 20).

First, he said had I been to a ceramah given by the opposition parties, especially in the rural and economically depressed areas, then Dr Mahathir Mohamad's statement blaming the Kg Medan clashes on the opposition would make sense.

Pray tell, how? How would whatever the opposition said get the poor to take on each other and not press the case with the government or take on the rich, instead, if, indeed, their minds were 'poisoned'?

Second, he seemed to imply that I believe only the ruling political party would blame the opposition on the negative. If so, that's simply false. I had stated that any political party would blame the other and this is to be expected in politics.

But he ignored my basic point: We also expect whoever doing the blaming to make the case with some modicum of sound logic or reasoning.

This brings up my third point: What's the point of saying that we forget that "we live in an imperfect world where there is always someone who feels wronged - whether entirely a fault of his own or others"? Does that mean that whenever a negative thing happens no one can ever be blamed because we live in an imperfect world?

Finally, he said that Keadilan's behaviour at the Lunas by-election was also race-based. Certainly, Barisan Nasional harped on that after they lost in it.

But how would any political party, in the heat of campaigning, not be drawn to the race issue when its opponent played upon it because race is largely its essence?

At least, Keadilan has openly attempted to move away from race-based politics, looking at its constitution. The writer may say this is merely a political gimmick but if so, why not Umno, MCA or MIC try it? It would do the country a lot of good if they also openly took that stand, gimmick or not.