The blaze of publicity revealing the real-estate transgressions of Klang assemblyperson Zakaria Mat Deros has come as a rare beacon of hope to Malaysians disenchanted with being kept so long and deeply in the dark about the shady deals of the privileged and politically-connected.

It not only seems a promising sign, but comes at a highly propitious time. At the confluence of Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, and Hari Raya, the season of fresh beginnings, a shining example of the brilliant results that can be achieved by truth and transparency.

And, by happy coincidence, Reporters Without Borders has, at the same time, ranked Malaysia 21 places higher than last year in its World Press Freedom Report for 2006.

But as propitious as this confluence of events may appear, let's not be so dazzled by it as to imagine it's anything beyond a glimmer of brighter times to come.

Public awareness of Zakaria's delinquencies, or those that have seen the light of day so far, was sparked only when they came by chance to the notice of The Sun 's crusading columnist R Nadeswaran and deputy news editor Terence Fernandez.

And it's highly likely that it was only through the shining example of professional investigative journalism that these men and their newspaper then proceeded to provide, that the rest of Malaysia's media were shamed into so much as mentioning the matter.

The political-party-controlled newspapers and broadcast media seem to me to remain, as the prime minister conceded in his recent interview on CNN, as resolutely "self-censoring" as ever.

In other words, as slavishly devoted as always to the combination of silence and spin with which they preserve the political and financial interests of their owners and masters, at the expense of their hapless readers, viewers and listeners.

Revealing snapshot

And just as most of the press and other media had to be shamed into doing their duty in the Zakaria situation, so did a disappointing number of public officials and agencies.

In fact if the prime minister hadn't expressed his displeasure, and if Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah hadn't read the press reports and become personally so indignant at the scandalous goings-on in his state that he summoned Zakaria for a royal roasting, it seems unlikely that the Selangor Menteri Besar would have lifted a finger to justly resolve the situation.

As Citizen Nades reminded us in The Sun on Oct 30, Mohd Khir Toyo just two weeks earlier had put party interests firmly before those of the people with a statement that read, in part: "In the regulations it does not say that people who break the law cannot be appointed councillors. We appoint people according to their party positions..I will follow the orders, which say appointment of councillors has to be according to their party positions. So if there is any problem we will refer to the party management."

What a slap in the face for the principles and practice of public service. And what a revealing snapshot of the price of selecting public officials by party-political patronage instead of, as is the practice in democratic nations, by popular election.

The risk now, of course, is that, having been virtually forced by public outrage, prime ministerial distaste and Royal intervention to throw Zakaria to the wolves, "the party" will regroup, close ranks and get back to its business of running things as rankly as ever - leaving the Anti-Corruption Agency, which I can't help thinking of as the "Aunty Corruption Agency", so lacking it seems to be in initiative, resolve or efficacy, to continue investigating or not, as the case may be.

In other words, this scandal is liable to be seen by the political 'establishment' not as the tiny glimmer of hope as so many of us might like to perceive it, but a minor glitch to be largely ignored and quickly forgotten.

Glimmer of hope

Despite Malaysia's rise on the press-freedom scale, its new, improved 92nd place is, let's face it, still lamentably low. And given that the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act and Emergency Ordinance all remain in place, Malaysia remains a police state, as former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad persistently proclaims.

He, of all people, should be aware of the fact, having laboured tirelessly for the 20-odd years of his premiership to make it one.

With laws this draconian arrayed against the country, plus the power of the party-controlled English, Malay and Tamil press, and now with the Chinese press virtually monopolised by Tiong Hiew King through Ezywood Holdings - a company whose name seems to proclaim the untouchability of its proprietor's timber interests every whit as arrogantly as Istana Idaman stands in the face of Zakaria's low-cost neightbours' objections - surely The Sun alone can't change the entire system of patronage, corruption, nepotism - and of course NEPotism - that has prevailed so long in Malaysia.

But let's hope it can keep up the good work. Let's look on the bright side and hope that the paper's success in getting some action in the Zakaria case with some good old-fashioned muck-raking journalism isn't just a flash in the pan.

Let's hope this achievement is not just a false dawn for a rakyat that has been kept in the dark through a decades-long night of secrecy, dissembling and repression of free expression, but a light, however tiny, at the end of the proverbial tunnel.