I refer to the report Timber gift to Mugabe: Reveal price tag .

The opposition leader wants to grill our foreign minister on the total cost involved for the timber material donated by Malaysia to build a palatial palace for the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe.

One cannot fathoms why hard-earned monies of Malaysian taxpayers are used to subside another despot's opulent palace in a far away land while our poor and downtrodden still live in squatter huts with leaking roofs and no power supply.

To paraphrase the Malay idiom: 'Kera di hutan disusukan, anak di kandung kelaparan'. There are lots of things the government can do to uplift the economic situation of the people in this country and we should help our people first before helping others. Charity, as they say, begins at home.

We should not hold our breath waiting for an intelligent answer to our opposition leader's question. I am sure the foreign minister will come up with something during the question-and- answer session time and just like how Rafidah Aziz managed to outwit the parliamentarians on AP issue, so too will the foreign minister evade the Mugabe question.

As regards to the closeness of Mahathir Mohamad and Mugabe, maybe the English idiom 'birds of the same feather flock together' can be succinctly describe their closeness to one another.

By the way, Pak Lah can learn a lesson from the Congress Party in India where the dynamic Prime Minister Mamohan Singh downgraded his high profile foreign minister to a lesser post after he was implicated in the recent Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

You have to be cruel to be kind, Pak Lah. Replace the tainted ministers and bigwigs in the BN stable of parties in order to win big in the next polls. The people are now skeptical of your solemn promise to clean up the government's act after you had won big at the last general elections. A promise made is a promise kept and a gentleman's word is his bond.