Doing right thing and doing thing right ...

Doing the right things and doing the things right may not be the same thing.

Cancelling the construction of the "crooked" or "scenic" bridge may be the right thing to do because it saves taxpayers' money as well as the image of "rationality" of the country but has it been done in the right manners?

Now, it is said that the cancellation was decided upon " in the national interest". Many people ask: wasn't the idea of building the bridge was also said to be carried out " in the national interest"?

It is also claimed that the decision to cancel the building of the bridge was reached in response to "people's opinion and sentiment". So, many people also ask: does it mean that when the government decided to build the bridge, it did not listen to "the people's views"?

I think the abrupt U-turn is certainly one heated issue but there is another equally critical point which many people are asking now: have there any more real values in what the government says about "national interests" or " people's opinions, sentiments and views", etc?

To put it bluntly: many people are now asking the very critical question of whether the entire government can be trusted or not even on such a serious issue involving foreign relations.

The only saving grace for the government is that its top leaders and propagandists have not made the claim that it was God who sent a holy angel to Putrajaya one starry night to instruct PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to execute His will to scrap the construction of the "crooked" or "scenic" bridge, or that ex-PM Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's original plan was conceived under similiarly Divine circumstances.