Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar's opinion that the Philippine government should apologise for the outrage over the alleged rape of a 'Filipina' minor who turns out to be Malaysian is startling.

The Philippines wouldn't have jumped the gun had the Malaysian authorities not detained her own citizen in the first instance as an illegal immigrant in a detention camp in which she was allegedly sexually abused before being repatriated to the Philippines as a 'Filipina'.

He now comes out with another startling statement that the bombings in Bali could have been prevented if Indonesia had a security law similar to the Internal Security Act to deal with terrorists (see ISA could have prevented Bali tragedy, says Syed Hamid).

It is a wonder how the minister came to this conclusion (to apologise for the ISA). He will have to eat his words if a similar tragedy happens here in spite of the ISA. In fact, Syed Hamid admitted in the next breath that the Bali incident was "totally unexpected and a similar attack could happen anywhere, even in Malaysia" (in spite of the ISA).

Besides, I understand that Indonesia is no greater respecter of human rights when its 1963 Anti-subversion Law empowers the military and prosecution to investigate cases and detain people for up to one year without charge or trial, quite similar to our ISA.

I hope our ministers will reflect deeper before making comments to the media.