I laughed and nearly fell off the chair today reading the headline in the News Straits Times about the warning from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Burma would be expelled from Asean if the military junta does not release Aung San Suu Kyi.

Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black?

The only difference is Malaysia has been clever and crafty enough to use the law and judicial system to incarcerate a government-turned-opposition politician. This is also a tactic very successfully employed by the Singaporean government to muzzle dissent.

I am also very surprised that the Burmese generals did not ask the rest of Asean to mind their own business.

In Malaysia, we cannot now even protest peacefully and raise awareness against rape as Awam found out, and cannot even laugh at our own idiosyncracies as the ICT has found out. Let us clean op our own back yard first.