At first I do not wish to comment o­n the responses to the letter I wrote ( Extraordinary, unverifiable stories

). However, I feel the need to do it as I believe my letter and intentions are grossly misunderstood.

I have been following malaysiakini for many years now and I believe its presence is vital to the Malaysian and even global community. Therefore, its development, rhetoric and politics are of great concern to me.

In countries like UK or US, there are many alternative media sources. In Malaysia, it's o­nly malaysiakini . Malaysiakini is not merely a media outlet, but it bears o­n its shoulders, as the pioneer of Malaysia's first true independent media outlet, the great responsibility to survive and remain credible.

As a daily reader and strong supporter of malaysiakini , I wish to profess that I can still remain a true supporter and even a stronger supporter of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his policies as are many other Malaysian readers. This further strengthens the fact that malaysiakini is truly independent.

It is not my intention to belittle the suffering of ISA detainees because I truly believe most of them have suffered psychologically and physically.

However, my concern, as I failed to demonstrate in my original letter, is the way, by which Saari Sungib's account of the interrogations he went through is represented. Headlines (and contents) such as 'Satellite used to track "errant" individuals: ISA interrogators' and 'Malaysian "secret service" seen as second o­nly to MI5', focused so much more o­n what the interogators said and claimed they can do, not o­n the brutal techniques and suffering of Saari as it should.

In other words, the article creates awe and fear of the Malaysian police force rather than arousing sympathy to the plight of ISA detainees!

Journalists are free to write whatever they want, but they have to be responsible. There is also what you call investigative journalism as opposed to just mere free journalism. For these articles, it is very proper that investigative journalism is implemented.

If journalists are not responsible, then you will also see publications of many old wives's tales ( pantang-larang ). Would you start to see writings about pontianak and UFOs? By all means, you can always find someone who has such 'true' stories to tell. It is true that it is up to readers to distinguish between fact and fiction; however, for many that might not be easy.

If you feed the readers constantly with the same news, fact or fiction, that news becomes fact. I o­nly commented after three articles were published. Take the issue o­n Iraq for example, or the water issue between Malaysia and Singapore. If the facts are so easily distinguishable from fiction, public opinion would have been unified.

Creating a society that believes in an almost supernatural police force (that has no regard for democratic rights and law) will o­nly further impede freedom of any kind. And, sadly, there are many who believe.