Many Indians, especially the nationalists, are insulted by the actions of the Malaysian government that disregard the international agreement signed in the presence of Indian Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and then Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on May 14, 2001.

This was celebrated by those in India as a recognition of their country's supremacy in railway engineering. Now a majority of them are disappointed and felt cheated. The consequences could be a boycott of Malaysian palm oil by the public as a protest against the unacceptable hasty decision made by Malaysia not to go ahead with the deal.

Primary Industries Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik has already mentioned about the refusal of Indian ports to service our palm oil containers, and this is only the beginning.

Meanwhile, China has always observe the 'Silence is Golden' rule. But history had taught us that China's foreign policy is always based on mutual interests. The Chinese often retaliate at the right time rather than stay defensive.

We had seen their cancellation of aircraft orders until the United States had to compromise to save American jobs in Seattle and Detroit.

The China-Malaysia trade recorded an impressive RM6.8 billion in 2002. China is importing about 2.7 million MT (metric tonnes) of vegetable oil of which 400,000 MT are from palm oil. Palm oil and rubber had been Malaysia's most important exports during the 1998 financial crisis.

At present, Malaysia produces 11.5 million MT of palm oil from 1.38 million hectares of plantations. Indonesia is currently producing about 8.5 million MT and the number of the planting acreage is also on the increase.

By 2006, Indonesia will emerge as the biggest palm oil producer and it will have many advantages that Malaysia cannot compete, including the total cost of production and market networks.

Our leaders are still overwhelmed with the runaway success of the bubble economy created by Mahathir. The overpriced development projects are financed by heavy borrowing at the expense of future generation.

The massive bill as a result of political cronies' failed privatisation programme had cost Malaysia not less than RM60 billion. The Renong group alone owed Malaysian citizens more than RM30 billion.

Now we enter into the era of Syed Mokhtar-MMC regime which has already recorded a heavy borrowing of RM15 billion in the name of Islamic financing system.

International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz is definitely aware of the drastic drop of foreign direct investment and the heavy dependent on the low value-added electronic industries.

Her effort should be focus on the 'smart partnership' with the emerging economies - India and China - rather than living in the false hope that both countries would not retaliate.

While Lim is more of a pragmatic person, he has already seen the dark shadow over the Malaysian palm oil industry.

Indeed, the most important thing to do is to provide a level-playing field through an open international tendering system in the North-South double-tracking rail project. The blind award to MMC-Gamuda should be revoked based on the technical ground (Insufficient input from their eight-page proposal).

If Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi refuses to conduct an international open tender on the project, the Royal Parliamentarian Commission must be established to investigate the possibility of malpractice and corruption in this double-tracking project.

If Indian Railway Construction Company (Ircon) and China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) lost in the open bidding, then we can justify to ourselves that MMC-Gamuda had made it.