To begin with, Malaysians should recognise and question recent displays of double standards in silencing the press. The front-page of the Nov 25, 2005 issue of the New Straits Times describes the woman at the centre of the Squatgate controversy as a woman from China , yet NST did not receive any show-cause letter, while China Press received two.

In a miserable display of irony, The Sarawak Tribune found that there was indeed a significant impact to accompanying one of the infamous Mohammad caricatures with an article whose title was clearly designed to calm tempers: 'Cartoon not much impact here'.

Some commentators have suggested that TV2 broadcasted images which showed the offending caricatures carried in the Tribune . While TV2 was left untouched, Guangming Daily , which carried a picture within a picture of the offending material, has been suspended for two weeks. Fortunately, Google has not capitulated, although they have begun censoring other unrelated material to placate the Chinese government.

It is difficult to deny that Jyllands-Posten intended to offend but in light of the harsh reaction towards Malaysian media organisations that reprinted the caricatures, there seems to be a genuine failure to appreciate the objective of Malaysian editors and producers. In reproducing the caricatures, were The Sarawak Tribune , Guangming Daily or TV2 attempting to offend? Or were they attempts to report news of genuine interest and concern to the Malaysian public?

In what its editors clearly thought was a clever attempt at wit, the New Straits Times recently published a caricature of the caricaturists. As a result of this, there are now Malaysian groups bizarrely calling for the ISA detention of NST editors but the prime minister has said that no action will be taken against the paper or its editors.

I am thoroughly mystified by this latest farce.

Have these same groups held demonstrations over the senseless killings in Iraq today where Muslims are murdering other Muslims whose only crime may be to be practicing a different form of Islam or to be working as policemen in order to feed their families? As much as they may protest over the way Muslims and Islam are being depicted, what are these protestors doing to correct situations that serve to enforce entrenched stereotypes?

As the caricatures continue to polarise opinions and Malaysians debate the efficacy of freedom of expression, let it not be forgotten that freedom of expression is the oxygen for all other freedoms. As the late American judge Harold R Medina once said: 'If you don't have this freedom of the press, then all these little fellows are weaseling around and doing their monkey business and they never get caught'.

For its part, the Malaysian leadership should realise that Malaysians are not monkeys who can be commanded to see no evil, hear no evil and, in this case, report no evil. Ignorance is no panacea. To the contrary, ignorance is a perilous state of being that must be countered with reliable information presented in a manner that will provoke not violence but thought.