Of late, once again, the Malaysian newspapers have shown themselves to be the propaganda tool of the Malaysian government. Perhaps not as bad as the days of Dr Mahathir Mohamad when every morning we were greeted by the headline: Dr M: blah, blah, blah...

The rakyat is more discerning and harder to fool these days. The many stories which have come out recently as the headlines are obviously bent on attacking the PKR.

A slight squabble, a defection or two, a sneeze and somehow they all manage to make it to the headlines. Salt and pepper added. It’s understandable since the newspapers in Malaysia are owned by the government either directly or indirectly.

However, when it comes to reporting on the Anwar Sodomy II trial, I am ashamed and embarrassed that the newspapers go into such lurid detail of the court proceedings. They are being irresponsible just for political’s sake. Not thinking of the underage readers of the newspapers each day.

In 1999, when the first Anwar trial was taking place and so much propaganda and rubbish were being fed to the Malaysian public, the rakyat called for a self-imposed ban on the mainstream newspapers.

The publishers were hit with a plummeting readership and had to change their reporting styles a little. We can do it again. We as consumers have the right to send the mainstream, government- owned newspapers a message.

‘Report fairly or we will stop buying your newspapers. Publish rubbish and we will boycott you’. Shall we begin a nationwide ban on some newspapers particularly those which spew venomous racial threats?

We can read the online news and sports reports to get updated and we do not need to buy propaganda mills.