As a supporter of Malaysiakini since its inception more than ten years ago because I believe in "the news that matters" - the news that offers the opportunity for the victims of injustice to have their side of the story known, the news that exposes corruption, and the news that gives a voice to the politically repressed, I wonder if all the news it now publishes really matters.

Why publish news that you can find anywhere else - especially the news about people who don't deserve the publicity?

I recall in Malaysiakini's infancy when some reader complained why Malaysiakini was not publishing more of the news you can find in the other newspapers and the reason given was that it existed to provide the ‘alternative news' - the news that others don't publish - at least that was the gist of the reply.

Sadly, I fear Malaysiakini is waning in its mission albeit still offering the avenue for dissenting views.

But why include the news that doesn't matter?

I'm sure other readers will make their own judgments but I have seen news sticking out like a sore thumb that should not be included and the space could have been used for something else more newsworthy - or donated to some worthy NGO to publicise their work.

I appreciate you cannot invent news unless you are UM - the Untoward Malaysian newspaper that indulges in ‘creative news' or the euphemism for lies, but you can report on news that others don't want us to know.

Take a leaf out of the Russian newspaper run by an intrepid young Russian woman who has resigned herself to face the fate of being murdered like six of her fellow journalists, and tackle the hard issues.

There is no shortage of such news in Malaysia.

No need to tell us about what is happening in the lives of those who have ruined many Malaysian lives and their fictitious accounts of how they did not do anything wrong against the compelling evidence on public record.

Has Malaysiakini lost its cutting edge?

Investigative journalism is what is sorely needed and spare us the pain of reading more about the man who has shortsold himself and his nation and continues to toy with us in utter contempt and disrespect with his "trademark sarcasm".

Who cares about the past in the eyes of one with a jaundiced vision, whose forked-tongue and selective memory and lack of moral integrity has destroyed his country's public institutions?

Are Malaysians so cowed that one man can play havoc with their lives and get away with it in his attempt at sardonic wit?

I'd much rather read something by those who upheld the moral integrity of the nation's public institutions but suffered for their honesty - the decent judges, former policemen, intrepid journalists, ethical politicians, retired government servants, plodding housewives and so on - not the duplicitous and slanted stories that attempt at titillation and re-writing of history by a man who speaks like the serpent and acts with overweening pride.

In another country this man would be in jail, as we see a former French prime minister charged for corruption and another Italian one face a similar predicament.

Leader-worshipping Malaysians have much to learn about democracy and how not to make gods and lords of those whose salaries are paid by the 90 percent of Chinese Malaysian taxpayers and let them act above the law.

In truly democratic countries many of these people would be condemned as common criminals, not elevated to spurious heights with fancy titles and false notions of self-importance because of their culpable conduct. We know what happens to those who follow a Pied Piper.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend and deceitful the kisses of an enemy. I give this feedback as a friend.

A newspaper with a vision of helping the nation become a better place must resist the temptation to appear to be more relevant to those who have tried to destroy it.

Such capitulation is a betrayal of the ideals of its existence and those who rallied to its noble cause.

"Keeping the bastards honest," was the catchcry of the Australian Democrats some years ago but when their female leader was found in bed with a ‘bastard' of a Federal Labour government minister, it proves slogans can be empty and hypocritical.

Those who make slogans are clever mindbenders who trick the impressionable. The discerning will judge a tree by its fruit. Fruit trees that put on a show of abundant flowers but bear no fruit are quite useless. Some people are like them.

No one likes to upset the powers that be but someone has to tell the emperor he has no clothes. Malaysiakini does this well when it is on track.

When the alternative news cover the same old regurgitated stories such duplication is a waste of resources and our time. Surely there are some original stories worthy of coverage.

For example the Indians took to the streets again. Why? Did any journalist bother to do an investigative piece on the prevalent plight of the Indians and follow through on what the government has done to alleviate their hardships?

What about the plight of the Penans? And such other worthy concerns.

What about the performance of the governments under the Pakatan Rakyat? How have they fared in comparison to the states under the BN? It is the tip of the iceberg of subjects that can be investigated and reports written that will help a concerned public.

We need more substance not unworthy news that only creates more worthless debate. Why abet the serial stirrer to insult our intelligence by drawing public attention to what he says and does as if it really matters?

I hope Malaysiakini will take online reporting to the next level and prove why it offers only the news that matters because that is its raison d'etre and why I and many others support it.

I would hate to see the decline of a newspaper that fell the way of others. When a People's Paper - that once lived up to its name - becomes a Prosperous Paper then you know where the real priorities lie.

The last thing I want to read in Malaysiakini is how many people attended the launch of some book by someone from the past whose ghost continues to haunt and disturb the country's progress despite his political demise and whose ideas and words do not offer hope but like Hilter's deadly propaganda, poisons the minds of the gullible and renders the nation a continuing legacy of the mediocre and stunted state he left it when he ‘retired' from politics but still hogs the limelight.

Let the others pass the propaganda but for Malaysiakini that survives on ‘the news that matters' give us the news that really matters and cut out the crap from and about you know who.

I'm sure many Malaysians know what happened to their country in those dark days without the architect and builder of their misery reminding them and painting a bright picture of his role, and casting a pall of gloomy aspersions on his enemies in his habitual dark, diabolical and destructive manner.