It must have been a tough week for many parents, as they sent their loved ones off for national service on Monday. The public, of course, did not get to see much of the sobbing parents. We are talking about doing the nation a great service here, so everything has to be reported in a positive light.

Kudos to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak! For they have both pledged to rectify the mistakes after the hiccups on the first day. But the New Straits Times had for one moment played 'agony aunt' by reminding the parents that grouses over the glitches should be 'reasonable'.

After all, should some of the hiccups prove too much for the parents to bear, that could cost the government more than a few votes. Given that some minister's credibility is on the line, Malaysians should rest assured that the entire project will be run in the smoothest way possible.

The Scomi crisis

The came the nuclear row. Despite the numerous efforts by the government to keep it in perspective, rumours and speculations around the Scomi controversy persisted.

The case seems straightforward at first glance: Scomi, a listed oil and engineering company, is said to produce key parts of centrifuges that could enrich uranium for nuclear purposes. The company may, or may not, have been aware of the actual content of the business deal. But the whole episode snowballed into a nuclear controversy that caused the US, by far the most formidable nuclear power, to be gravely concerned.

Well, some Malaysians might have been in a false glory that our nation was able to contribute to the nuclear industry in a not-too-insignificant way. Malaysia memang boleh !

Yet the question remains: were the Malaysian authorities aware of the nature of the entire business, involving a Malaysian company of which Kamaluddin Abdullah, the PM's son, has a controlling stake?

And one must not forget that less than three days after the dodgy deal came to light, Eric Chia, former managing director of the scandal-prone Perwaja, was arrested and swiftly taken to court; he was followed by Kasitah Gaddam, the now former land and cooperative development minister, for corruption charges. These two developments instantly stole the show from the Scomi controversy.

But it was President Bush who brought Scomi back into limelight again, when he in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington mentioned the word 'Malaysia' no less than four times in relation to the nuclear deal. The president appears to be ignorant of the fact that patriotism sells perhaps fastest in Malaysia. Many a time, the sentiments of the people are so easily whipped up, that the real issues often get lost amidst the hype of patriotism.

In the case of Bush's remarks on Malaysia, the patriotism bandwagon rolled again, and our local pressmen were in a rush to jump on it, with the NST , Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian (setting their editorial wheels in motion, chastising the president for demeaning Malaysia.)

After all the nationalist sentiments died down, Malaysians are still no wiser in regard to the crux of the issue, as well as the background of the Sri Lankan middleman BSA Tahir ( photo ), who seems to have entered, worked, and left Malaysia by stealth. It is more than puzzling to me that even Prime Minister Abdullah Ahamd Badawi, who is also home minister, is in the dark about Tahir's records of entry in Malaysia.

And it is not the job of our local pressmen to pursue the matter with the PM. After a clarification denying that Malaysia was producing nuclear parts for sale, the media started writing in self-congratulatory tone that our country is vindicated. But I would be intrigued to know if our major dailies subscribe to the Asian Wall Street Journal, which early this week reported that the Malaysian wife of Tahir had a stake in a company controlled by Kamaluddin, as there has been no mention of this important point in the local press. Hmm some food for an overstretched conjecture here.

As if the series of rebuttals in the form of editorials might not be sufficient to keep Malaysians from being poisoned by western propagandists, Utusan Malaysia ran an article , entitled ' Bom Islam cabar tamadun Barat ' (Islamic bomb challenges Western civilisation), seemingly as an attempt to justify the quest of the Islamic world for nuclear weapons in the face of US hegemony. The article cannot have been more timely, given the intensity of the Scomi issue.

If we have heard of electoral delineation exercise, the Malaysian version of which should be more appropriately called 'gerrymandering', I would like to also enlighten the reader on the 'desalination exercise' in the Malaysian media. This seamless and highly sophisticated exercise can be exemplified by the abovementioned Utusan article, as it seeks to 'educate' the Malaysian public on the crucial issue of nuclear weaponry from a Muslim perspective. After all, why should one take the righteous voice against weaponising nuclear technology to heart when the US is the single largest nuclear power?

Quantifying 'truth'

In the same vein, Sin Chew Daily has, since the beginning of this week, been working vigorously to 'desalinate' the minds of its readers by highlighting its charity and good deeds for the Chinese Malaysian community over the years, in the hope that its readers will remain loyal in a challenging environment. All this is done in the wake of the ad nauseam accusation of being a press thug by its archrival Oriental Daily News , as well as other media groups.

Last week I wrote in this column that the public could begin to see a more balanced coverage of news concerning Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan). Though a slight improvement is in sight, I must however admit that my earlier observation could have been premature in the wake of the minimum coverage on the ' Bebaskan Anwar ' (Free Anwar) rally in Cherok Tokun last weekend.

Both the English and the Malay dailies initially put the turnout at no more than a few hundred. They then changed to report that some 2,500 turned up in support of the jailed former deputy prime minister. However, my alternative sources have it that the turnout could easily have surpassed 10,000 throughout the whole day!

So, who is telling the truth: the government-sanctioned media, or their alternative counterparts?

Perhaps our mainstream press should send their journalists back to school to do a bit of basic science and mathematics. In English, of course.