I refer to the letter written by Chae Lian, 'Arms heist gets trial, opposition demo gets ISA?' (June 28). The writer says that the instances I gave of how the west showed blatant disregard for human rights in general and the detention and execution of suspected criminals in particular were just "blots in their history" and shouldn't be taken as a benchmark for us to measure ourselves against.

The writer has misunderstood my intention for bringing these issues out, for I only wanted to show that democracy and extra-judiciary action are not necessarily incompatible. I wanted to show that it is possible for a democratic country to be democratic and also have the option to exercise certain 'undemocractic' practices such as detention without trial and/or charge.

Why do you think the Spanish government executes suspected (not convicted, or even tried before a court of law) Basque separatists? Wouldn't it be more democratic to bring them to court? They would if they could, but since these leaders often cover their criminal tracks very well, it would be impossible to convict them, even though they know that they are guilty.

The same goes with the government of Israel, who regularly uses Mossad, their security agency, to execute suspected terrorist, again without the consent or even knowledge of the judicial system. If you don't believe what I say, just catch the news on CNN.

Again, please don't get me wrong - all I wanted to show is that democracy and certain undemocratic principles can co-exist, but only in very, very limited circumstances. The Americans, the Spanish, the Israelis trust their governments to protect their national security. Maybe we should do the same.