Jeffrey's letter Keep domestic affairs out of Pope-PM meeting is indeed a rather smart apology for the gross injustices committed by the government of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad not only against Christians, but Muslims, Chinese and other Malaysians.

But apology for injustices, however smart, must not go unchallenged and unexposed to the world. Catholicism means universality and there is therefore no national boundary as far as human rights and dignity are concerned.

Christians can forgive, but not forget because as Milan Kudera once remarked: "The struggle against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting".

In the 1987 Operation Lallang, some Catholic and Protestant church lay workers were detained without trial and tortured under the repressive Internal Security Act (ISA) for being allegedly involved in a "Marxist conspiracy".

In the ensuing general election held in 1990, the then opposition leader, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, was accused of "selling out Muslims and Islam" to the Catholic Church and Christianity for wearing a Kadazan headgear decorated with an image said to be a 'crucifix'.

In the present situation, there are still many Malaysians detained without trial under the ISA. How can Christians who are taught Beatitudes close their eyes to the suffering of ISA detainees and their families?

Mahathir to position Malaysia as "peace broker on the international stage"? Come on, let us be honest and a little bit humble. Look at the "peace" brokered by Mahathir for MCA: physical and somatic fistfights still broke out among MCA Youth leaders long after the so-called "peace" has been agreed upon by Team A and Team B.

Look at the continuing mud-sligging in Umno Puteri on financial and moral matters. The antagonists are all members of Mahathir's party, Umno. If Mahathir cannot even broker peace for his party and MCA, why should we trust him to be able to broker peace on the international stage?