On Sunday (March 2), I came across an article in the Berita Minggu , the weekend edition of Berita Harian , which I assume with a certain degree of confidence is the de facto mouthpiece of the government.

The headline of the article was " Lemahnya pemikiran media asing ", which roughly translates to the foreign media being intellectually weak.

In the article the writer, Kadir Dikoh (I'm sure that it is not his real name) lambasted the western media, especially the US media, for not providing news o­n the recent NAM summit. He was very angry with CNN , CNBC , the Washington Post , New York Times and many others. Even The Australian was not spared! He accused them of providing inadequate coverage or a negative slant to some of the news o­n NAM.

While I tend to agree that the western media have never been independent or objective at all times, I feel that Berita Minggu should be the last to criticise its American counterparts. Immediately springing to my mind are the numerous products of Malaysia's own spindoctor, none other than the deputy prime minister himself, and the attacks o­n PAS' organ Harakah , the now defunct Eksklusif tabloid, and a host of other newspapers that were victims of the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

If the western media have deliberately left out news (whether acting o­n a governmental blackout policy or simply an internal editorial decision), they do not compare to the Malaysian mainstream media which have carried such activities many notches higher - by inventing news about its Enemy No 1, PAS.

Not a day passes that we do not see something negative about either Kelantan or Terengganu. Even if the news they carry - such as highlighting extreme poverty, religous zealouts and soil erosion in these two states - may 'hurt' the image of the whole country (normally a concern of the Tourism Ministry), it does not deter the media from 'harassing' the two state governments.

Another 'favourite' news is about PAS members deserting the party for Umno. If we were to total up the number of PAS members joining Umno all these years, that have been reported in the local press (especially near an election), there should not be a single PAS member left by now!

Even o­n TV, we have programmes like Terengganu Kita (Our Terengganu) and Kelantan Dalam Gerhana (Kelantan eclipsed) not too long ago, attacking the two states governed by PAS. When Sabah was under the PBS, which was an opposition party then, there was even a catchy song, sang in 'blues' style, which depicts the state as totally backward. The song, played many times o­n national TV, showed Sabah at its worst, with dilapidated houses and uncollected rubbish, etc.

So, Berita Minggu, do not pretend to be noble and professional when criticising others. The other media are not as bad as you. At least they have some integrity left, because their reason for not reporting somethings is merely because they do not want to do it (based o­n editorial or other considerations). In Berita Minggu's case, it has been guilty many times of reporting something that is not even there! The foreign media may be up against other countries, but Berita Minggu is up against its own people!