As a long-time supporter of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I am now utterly confused and disoriented by the statement that Malaysia should not boycott American goods. I am reassessing my support for him and the Barisan Nasional government.

I still remember the first major policy pronouncement of Mahathir Mohammad after he came into office and declared the "Buy British last" campaign. Malaysia won and the Brits surrendered. If we could do that then, why not now?

Are US goods and services that essential to Malaysia? We can surely substitute European goods and services for those of the American. After all, Europeans are also Westerners too.

We can also buy from Australia, New Zealand and Japan, as well as developing countries like China and India. We should seize this opportunity to diversify our suppliers of goods and services so as not to be over-dependent on only one source which is always blackmailing us into submission on other issues.

In fact, the government has been procuring arms and weapons from Russia, Sweden and France. We should further diversify our arms supplies by buying from India and China. After all, they are cheaper and do not subject us to political blackmail.

Mahathir should therefore be consistent in his anti-American policies. It is time to prove his disapproval and condemnation of the American bombing of Afghanistan by deed, not mere words or empty rhetoric.