I've noticed that malaysiakini has recently included some "news reports" of Singapore's Straits Times . The wisdom of the decision deserves public discussion.

One one hand, it is certainly important for Malaysians to know how Singaporeans report on our politics and how they see us. It will open up our minds and broaden our intellectual horizon.

However, on the other hand, we must always remember that Singapore's ruling People's Action Party has a tight a grip on Straits Times as Umno has on the New Straits Times . Both of them are in fact not really public newspapers, but party organs presented in subtler format.

True, there are many critical reports on Malaysia and the Malaysian government by the Straits Times in Singapore, but those reports are only allowed if Malaysia's interests clash with those of Singapore, like the water supply issue. Singapore's Straits Times , like Malaysia's New Straits Times are, in this sense, the foreign policy instruments of the respective regimes.

On questions of democracy and human rights, both newspapers share the same interests and values in preserving authoritarianism and the so-called 'Asian values'.

It is for this reason that Singapore's Straits Times has never criticised the abuse of the Internal Security Act in Malaysia, and New Straits Times always keeps mum over the tudung (headscarf won by Muslim girls) issue in Singapore which is a gross violation of Muslims' human rights.

As an alternative media, malaysiakini must be very careful and discerning to see the political differences. Otherwise, malaysiakini would unconsciously become a channel to spread PAP's anti-democracy and anti-human right values and ideas among Malaysians.

After all, surfers now could easily switch from malaysiakini to the web edition of SST . Why let your good brand name be used by a newspaper whose core values contradict those of malaysiakini ?

Editor's note : The inclusion of news items from other websites, including Singapore's Straits Times , is to alert our readers to some interesting reports on Malaysia which could be found on the Internet. We leave it to our readers to judge the value of such reports.