At the recent Umno annual general meeting, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad decided to take pot-shots at the British/Australians by mimicking their accent when he spouted "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain". Was it really necessary even if it was meant to drive a point home to the delegates in attendance?

Coming from an elderly statesman like Dr Mahathir, it was really unbecoming. I wonder what would happen if the Australian premier did the same thing by mocking us similarly in Bahasa. I bet Umno Youth would be gathering to protest in front of the Australian High Commission the next day.

Mr Prime Minister, please mind your language. Don't make a fool of yourself.

I would strongly appreciate it if the prime minister can stop using the Chinese as the bogeymen, as he did in the AGM.

Some years ago, the Singapore Senior Minister told his people, "Buck up or we may have to re-merge with Malaysia". A furore followed and Umno claimed the Malays were used as the bogeyman in this context. Now we see Umno doing that very same thing to Malaysians of Chinese origin. This is not right and I would like to register my protest over this matter.

The prime minister said that those who opposed the take over of Nanyang Press by Huaren Holdings (MCA) were influenced by DAP, Suqiu, Chinese teachers' groups, Keadilan and PAS. Going by that reasoning, were the 42 percent MCA delegates who opposed the takeover at MCA's EGM also influenced by the aforesaid parties?

The prime minister claimed he could not understand why there is such a huge protest over the Nanyang deal when Umno could take over Utusan Melayu without the same amount of fuss*. For one thing, Mahathir is not a Chinese and therefore cannot fathom how they think. I hope his new Chinese advisers will be able to 'convert' him so that he can understand the Chinese Malaysian populace better.

* Editor's note:

In 1961, then chief editor of Utusan Melayu, Said Zahari led his colleagues to resist the Umno takeover of the newspaper in a strike that lasted three months. Said was banished from Malaysia, an order revoked by Mahathir in 1989.