It gives me no great pleasure to note malaysiakini's current predicament resulting from the responses of the Malaysian government to your continued attack o­n its legtimacy and your unbridled biases vented o­n those not subscribing to your standard line.

It is indeed healthy to have differences of opinion and the right to express these openly. It is even better if we can match our criticisms of others with a better example of what we mean and fight for.

It is my contention that this is where you, as a publication, has eventually and expectedly come undone. You have not been that paragon of free press or freedom of expression judging from your wanton censorship of views contrary to those of yours.

The support you should enjoy in an effective opposition to what's happening in Malaysia (as you claim) and elsewhere (where you are deafeningly silent o­n more than o­ne occasion) will have to be orchestrated rather than for it to be the result of spontaneity. Your publication has been more oppressive than what you have opined as 'Mahathir's Malaysia', in its intolerance of views

not supported by your editorial policies.

The highly selective nature of what you publish and what you leave out has left a lot to be desired as far as your proclaimed objectivity is concerned.

The charade of popular support for what your paper publishes too often comes from staff or writers and a small group of dissenters (rebels without a cause), and in general from people connected with your publication. Very little can be relegated to independent views or fair criticism.

The rhetoric is billeous for the sake of being so. The criticisms in your pages have not been in any way productive. It continues to and has for a long time reflected mainly an anti-Mahathir stance - a robust mud-slinging self-righteous o­ne-sided cacophony of the looney chauvanistic elements of Malaysian society who believe that all change must come from the barrel of 'western systems'. There is nothing original in the claims you at malaysiakini make.

If you are to be the champion of free speech, at least make an effort to hide those larger-than-life blemishes that have become an integral part of malaysiakini's modus operandi against different views expressed.

An intolerance of opposing views, and a bullettin of imported populist concepts that have little or no place in honest intellectual discourse or debate, will change nothing for the better. Not for your publication at least.

I hope you come out of all of this stronger and perhaps more tolerant of those you criticise in the same way that you claim the government of Malaysia persecutes you and your followers. Charity begins at home. Try publishing a few more divergent viewpoints and an open debate. It is always more credible than the editor's blade.

Show some leadership and quality by opening your pages to free speech and divergent views. The anti-Mahathir or -bumiputra line is a tired, stale and repetitive regurgitation of an era gone by, unproductive and unlikely to bring any change except for your demise as a publication.

I hope this all ends well and gives rise to a better, bolder, fairer and freer malaysiakini . At present and for a while, your publication has been run like the old adage 'Never let the Truth get in the way of a Good Story'.