Singapore premier Goh Chook Tong is right in advising Singaporeans not to over-react to the baseless reports in the mainstream media in Malaysia, especially Berita Harian.

Whenever the Umno regime is unable to solve its internal or national problems, it always finds scapegoats, or try to find a bogey to divert domestic attention.

During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, for example, Jews, Singapore, George Soros and the United States were publicly blamed for the financial meltdown, whereas, the truth was that the Umno government overspent and its cronies over-borrowed for unproductive and vain consumption.

When it starts to blame others, it hopes to make the others angry and humiliate everyone in Malaysia so that it could mobilise patriotism to cover up its incompetence, impotence, corruption, inefficiency and abuses of power. It has been the same old games for years. Let us not fall into the trap again.