It was very interesting to follow the developments stemming from a ' letter

It is no wonder that not many want to (though I'm sure many wish to) speak out their mind openly, for fear of the consequences of their 'freedom' of speech.

Time and again Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad insisted that, "Malaysia is a democratic country - and we must speak up in order to be heard". He is always very vocal nationally and internationally.

Recently he said, "Malaysia would continue to be vocal and speak out against things it felt were wrong. When we believe something is not right, we must speak out, keep o­n pressing."

Now I think that it is no longer valid in this country of Boleh-land when our press freedom is under siege. For the police to take action drastically - without any court order - based just o­n a mere complaint by a right-wing party is ridiculous.

It is a shame to claim that our country is a developed nation when our 'independent' newspapers are tightly controlled and monitored by the government. We cannot have an open society, when our people and especially our independent journalists are constantly harassed by the authorities.

To be a progressive nation, we have to have freedom of expression. But, when the people's freedom of expression is constantly monitored by the authorities, we will have a frightened nation - at worst, a silent o­ne.

The unjustified interrogation of Malaysiakini.com editor-in-chief Steven Gan and the confiscation of malaysiakini's central processing units (CPUs) have just shown that Malaysia is run by a dictatorial regime, rather than the so-claimed democracy.