I think it is too radical to propose for the abolition of the Ministry of Information and RTM. 'Disband or downsize info ministry, RTM'

. The infrastructure can still serve some good purposes provided the government rationalises it appropriately.

The infrastructure and hardware of the Ministry of Information and RTM could, for example, be transformed into an external information service like the United States Information Services (USIS) to propagate our foreign policies.

There is certainly no more need for domestic propaganda, let alone propaganda for the partisan interests of Umno or Barisan Nasional. There is simply no more credibility for the Ministry of Information and RTM for their messages to be taken seriously nowadays even in kampung (villages).

However, to change the infrastructure and hardware of the Ministry of Information and RTM into a foreign propaganda arm of the government requires massive retraining of managers, staff and personal.

First and foremost is to make sure all of them, including minister, deputy minister and parliamentary secretaries of the Ministry of Information to be conversant with at least one major world language, like English, French, German, Japanese or Chinese.

It also requires them to understand the logics and dynamics of international relations, economy, culture and politics.

Thus, even if the government still wants to retain the services of the infrastructure and hardware of the Ministry of Information and RTM, there is still a sure need to retrench some monolingual and monocultural Malay nationalists, and to take in younger Malaysians who are multilingual and multicultural.

The government must summon enough political will to carry out the reform by not hesitating to axe unnecessary staff and personnel. Otherwise, the foreign information services would become a laughing stock of the world.

Given the globalisation of politics and economy, the government must be prepared to sacrifice some of its politicians in order to rationalise the Ministry of Information and RTM.

Otherwise, it is certainly a waste of taxpayers' money and an insult to the intellect of even the kampung folks.