Haze, that fuzzy element which evoked media coverage and Malaysians' rapt attention in late 1997, has been spotted in a number of locations in Sarawak and elsewhere in Malaysia in the last few weeks. In certain places in that eastern state of the country, visibility became so low that it provoked a local resident, probably mindful of the choking experiences of the recent past, to alert former opposition leader Lim Kit Siang about its potential dangers.

The mainstream media, however, generally displayed a somewhat lukewarm response to this disturbing sign. Perhaps the situation at the moment isn't acute enough as to warrant full media attention. But it could also be due to an "advice" given to the media by the Science, Technology and Environment Minister to downplay this problem of haze for fear of scaring off the beloved foreign tourists and their money.

If we need reminding, so sensitive was the government towards the issue of haze in 1997 that former Education Minister Najib Razak, for instance, issued a warning to academics, particularly those whose expertise revolves around the study of the environment and air quality, to stay away from making press statements. Predictably, there was less reporting of the haze in the malleable mainstream media since then.

The twisted logic possessed by the authorities, and condoned by the media, is that the supposed gains that are to be derived from the tourists should override concerns for the citizens' health and general wellbeing. As if to make this contention stick and enforceable, the government has, since 1997, placed the crucial indicator, Air Pollutant Index (API), under the Official Secrets Act categorisation. This means that you can only guess whether you're inhaling air or getting high on pollutants.

Indeed, Malaysians were supposed to have lived happily in the grip of a denial syndrome, while the foreign tourists were safely assumed by the authorities to be ignorant and imbecile enough not to read their own media reports and access the Internet about Malaysia's and other Southeast Asian countries' struggle with the perilous haze.

Apart from the environment, the human mind, too, can get fogged in Malaysia, something that is peculiarly fragile especially when it is associated with the political leadership. In Malacca, a state that was once steep in royal Malay tradition, chief minister Mohd Ali Rustam created a media sensation recently when he announced his intention to terminate the contracts of panel doctors whom he suspected of being supportive of the opposition.

And as if this isn't enough for us to chew on, Mohd Ali just a few days ago warned that the state government would pull some RM30 million-RM40 million out of two banks in the state whose staff were alleged to have worn opposition badges at work and also to have breached banking confidentiality by posting certain information and data pertaining to the government's financial transactions on the Net.

At this juncture, it is crucial for the media to provide space for intelligent and sober debate regarding this important matter that touches on the democratic right of an individual to choose his/herpolitical preference or affiliation. In addition, there is also a need to place the so-called unethical activities of certain banking officers in the larger context of the government's lack of transparency and accountability.

This is, of course, apart from some other questions that the mainstream media would like to raise but "shy" to do so such as: if the money deposited by the Malacca government in the banks concerned is public money, then there's every possibility that a portion of that derives from tax contributions of even those who support and/or vote for the opposition, and therefore the chief minister doesn't have the right to behave as if the money is his or BN's.

Besides, surely the banks have their own code of ethics and regulations to deal with legitimate cases of unethical conduct among their staff. Unless such questions are posed, the media will have to contend with a chief minister who of late has flaunted the tendency of becoming a serial court jester.

Yet again in Malaysia, there appears to be no stopping of the human mind from getting shrouded in befuddlement. Pages after pages of the local mainstream press, particularly the Malay and English newspapers, had been filled with the raving and ranting of the Astroids in our midst.

For the uninitiated, Astroids are a bunch of Malaysians who feverishly feel that our sense of nationhood and cultural identity can get easily dented or diverted by an exposure - via the satellite broadcaster Astro - to movies and other cultural contents that come from Hong Kong, Taiwan and India. In short, these alien programmes, with the strange exception of the imported American fare, can, they insisted, jeopardise the very process of nation-building.

Even if we were to stop for a second and imagine that such programmes could have some impact upon our impressionable minds, surely the positive and dynamic measure to take is to improve drastically and enhance the number of local TV programmes and movies so that they not only can entertain but also provide the local viewers a real sense of belonging by addressing cultural interests and concerns of various ethnic and cultural communities in the country via these cultural products.

To propose that these imported TV and movie fare from the places mentioned be banned is to confound the mind in an age where satellite broadcasting and the Internet defy physical barriers, political frontiers, national and ethnic identities. It is obviously tantamount to burying our thick heads in the sand.

The nation's political landscape lately is further shrouded in haziness what with dominant Umno party gearing up for its May general assembly. For instance, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, that princely politician who hails from Pas-controlled Kelantan, has grabbed the mainstream media attention in various ways.

Ku Li, as he is fondly called, is in the headline not necessarily because he is one politician who had stated his willingness to be a foot soldier in his desire to serve his beloved party Umno, but because he has kept the media - and especially Umno bigwigs - guessing about his political intention in the forthcoming party elections. The RM120 million question, at least at the time of writing, is, will the seasoned prince mount a Herculean challenge against Mahathir as Umno president or, at the very least, against deputy president Abdullah Badawi?

There were a number of media attempts to put Ku Li in a bad light, one of which is to paint him as someone who's so obsessed with his political ambition to the extent of defying the "no-contest advice" and also possibly splitting up the party again.

Of course, we can't deny the fact that the lonely dissenting voice of yet another former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam was given the media space, who essentially argued for a democratic participation and contest in the party. But this was subsequently overwhelmed by a chorus of criticisms against it, all pointing out the so-called importance of party unity.

And in the midst of all this, a movie entitled Pontianak Gua Musang (The Vampire of Gua Musang) was shown recently, unscheduled, by a TV station closely aligned to Umno. One may read this incident as something purely coincidental. But the timing of the broadcast may also drive another person to play a devil's advocate role by insisting that it was a concerted effort on the part of certain quarters to literally "demonise" the prince who happens to be a Member of Parliament for a place in Kelantan called Gua Musang.

Strangely enough, this movie was shown despite a ban imposed by the previous information minister on horror movies which border on the illogic and the irrational, a ruling that patently refuses to recognise the trend of things political in Malaysia.

Be that as it may, Malaysians, weather-beaten and mentally-fogged, are expected to learn to relax and live in desperate hope that there'll be a silver lining at the end of the haze.