Election Commission chairman Omar Mohd Hashim has pleaded to the mass media to provide fair coverage in the coming elections. Not a ghost of a chance. After all, the media is notorious in distorting news -- sometimes it is subtle, at other times, blatant. It is especially true now that the elections are around the corner.

Examples abound. For instance, take the news story that appeared in The Star on Nov 9, "DAP mum on two-term limit".

The page-two report was really about the Transparency International Malaysia (TIM)'s survey of political parties' views on, among others, corruption, economic reform, the independence of the judiciary and freedom of information. The poll, which contained 28 questions, was sent to 19 political parties. They were quizzed on their support for a truly independent Anti-Corruption Agency, a legislation for politicians to declare their assets to an independent body, transparency in awarding of government contracts, a limit on election spending, freedom of the press and curbs on police powers.

In announcing the results of the survey, TIM gave Keadilan (National Justice Party) and PAS (Islamic Party of Malaysia) full marks. Consequently, they would receive an award for backing moves to promote transparency and accountability. Sad to say, despite great efforts to encourage everyone to respond -- and an extended deadline -- only four parties returned the questionaires. Apart from PAS and Keadilan, the other respondents were the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Malaysian Peoples' Party (PRM).

More disturbing, however, is that not a single party in the Barisan Nasional coalition bothered to answer the questions. This, said TIM, meant "they either have no views on curbing corruption or are non-committal to the issues raised". The Star 's report, instead of reflecting these salient points, focused on the fact that the DAP failed to answer the question, "Will you initiate legislation imposing a maximum of two [five-year] terms for the prime minister?", which explained its rather wild headline.

Election Commission's Omar said that it would be a noble gesture if the media could provide fair coverage for all contesting parties during the election campaigns. He is, of course, assuming that nobility rules in the newsrooms of the country's mass media.