I wish to draw your readers' attention to the fact that since last week, Lee Ban Chen's column in the vernacular Oriental Daily has been banned, the reason being it was an "order from top" though the chief editor was unable to explain who gave the order.

According to Lee, who is also a columnist for malaysiakini , there are a total of 16 active writers who have been banned from writing in the Chinese mainstream media.

This contraction of freedom of speech in the Chinese media is very obvious compared to the time before MCA bought over Nanyang Holdings. I believe lot of other writers have also been banned from writing in the English and Bahasa Malaysia mainstream media.

Thus, both the writers' right to speak and the people's right to information are affected. The Chinese community has formed the Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami) to fight for freedom of information.

Perhaps we should we form an inter-community writers' alliance to better pursue this aim.