Ottawa's move to impose visas on Malaysians wanting to visit Canada is mired in half-truths and bent diplomacy.

Both sides in this controversial move are not giving the public a full account of what led up to the so-called sudden announcement.

Canada insists that the decision has nothing to do with U.S. pressure following the Sept 11 attacks. It says that it is nothing more than coincidence that the plan to impose visas on Malaysians coming to Canada was announced only two weeks after a similar decree was issued for Saudi Arabia citizens.

The public is asked to believe that there is no pressure from Washington to harmonise Canadian visa policy on Saudi Arabia and Malaysia with the United States, which has long required visitors of both the countries to apply for entry permission.

You are to ignore the fact that most of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi nationals, allegedly led by Osama bin Laden, a former Saudi citizen.

You are also to forget that some of the terrorists met in Malaysia prior to the attacks while many others with links to the Al-Qaeda have been arrested there since.

You are simply to believe that Canada has just found out that Malaysian passports are vulnerable to abuse.

Hogwash.

It is Canada's prerogative to impose visa requirements on whomever it wishes.

But why it has to hoodwink the public is perturbing, annoying and condescending.

For almost two decades Immigration Canada and the Mounties have said the Malaysian passport were being used by people smugglers as a document of convenience.

The enforcement authorities have been clamouring for visa requirements to be placed on Malaysian passport holders but Ottawa just shrugged it off.

Several years ago, the Mounties alarmed at the growing abuse of Malaysian passports even stationed officers at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.

Ottawa did not even bat an eyelid, even after several people, including a baby, who had entered Canada with Malaysian passports died trying to gain covert entry into the United States in the early nineties.

No folks you are supposed to believe Immigration Minister Denis Coderre that a periodic review of visa requirements has just found that the Malaysian passport and passport issuing system are vulnerable to abuse.

On the other side is the Malaysian political reaction to the visa ruling.

Responding to the rising crescendo of indignation by the Malaysian travelling public, the politicians are acting 'bewildered' and 'surprised' at Canada.

What they are not telling the public is that Ottawa has been in talks for over a month on this issue with Malaysia and that its Foreign Ministry had learnt about the ruling some time before it was announced. Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar's visit to Canada last month was to dissuade the Canadian government from going ahead with the ruling.

No one either in Ottawa or Kuala Lumpur will say why all this spin doctoring was needed on this issue.

One thing however is for sure and never mind what the press releases say.

Canada went this route at the behest of the Americans. The latest visa slaps conform to the American-fuelled post-Sept 11 hysteria which is part of the political scenario that Malaysia and other Muslim countries have to cope with.

Canada has not only the right but the obligation to impose security measures on visitors it deems may come armed with suspect documents.

It is not why this is done that is in question.

It is how it is done that stinks.