COMMENT Not since John Foster Dulles refused to be photographed with Zhou Enlai at the Geneva peace conference in the mid-1950s has a snubbed photo opportunity by the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur at Castel Gondolfo on Monday - if it comes to pass - be invested with reverberating importance.

Surely, this is hyperbolic exaggeration?

Not really, given the resonance of subtle gesture struck by no less than Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace two days ago when receiving Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife in audience.

In a move that has set tongues wagging and raised the pantomime of non-verbal diplomacy to transcendent heights, the British monarch was attired in yellow, the colour of the much-repressed Bersih-organised ‘March for Democracy' on Kuala Lumpur's streets last week that is fast turning out to be the biggest public relations disaster of an already gaffe-prone Najib administration.