Post-Sept 11, we have seen the governments of many, if not all, Muslim countries race for the coveted title of 'moderate Muslim state'. The powers that be in Washington have been kind enough to honour some of their allies by bestowing upon them such laudable credentials.

Yet o­ne thing remains true: the human rights record of most Muslim countries remains appalling at best, and some of those states that have been recognised as 'model Muslim states' by the mainstream Western media happen to have an atrocious record when it comes to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It is against this sordid backdrop of realist geopolitics that we ought to read what is happening in Malaysia today.

The raid o­n the offices of Malaysiakini.com by the Malaysian police and the confiscation of vital office equipment was, without doubt, o­ne of the biggest own-goals scored by Umno against itself in recent months. If the bright sparks in Umno Youth thought that by doing so they would score points in the race for media coverage and publicity, they were certainly right: But o­nly in the sense of making themselves look like a motley crew of hapless individuals who could not pen a simple letter in response to the o­ne that was published by Malaysiakini.com.

I for o­ne do not agree with the entire contents of the letter

written by the individual going by the pen-name of Petrof. For a start, I think the letter lacked proper historical analysis and failed to take into account important factors like the impact of colonisation and how colonial rule helped to create and reinforce ethnic and racial divisions upon which the lopsided plural economic system in British Malaya (like in British Burma and the Dutch East Indies) was created.

If Petrof's letter was 'inflammatory' for some, it was merely a reflection of the anxieties and frustrations that are commonly held by large sections of Malaysian society. The painful reality is that for millions of Malaysians (of all races) class, gender, racial and religious prejudice and discrimination are very real indeed. To pin the blame solely o­n Petrof would be unfair, for she/he is merely a symptom of a deeper crisis in this fragmented society of ours.