Right from the beginning when it was reported that Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand had Sars cases, most of us would have guessed that we have the same disease in Malaysia. We are sandwiched between these countries; how is it possible that we are free of Sars when others are having it?

It is most unfortunate that because of some political or economic reasons, we are all kept in the dark. It's a bit like growing mushroom - the darker and damper the environment, the better the mushroom will grow. By keeping us in the dark, the disease will spread even faster and further! We still remember the Nipah virus case. The government o­nly admitted we had a problem at hand after many people had lost their lives.

Wake up please, dear ministers. We have the Multimedia Super Corridor and are supposed to be IT literate. We even aimed to have o­ne computer in each family (until something went wrong and the scheme was stopped). The local radio stations even played that (silly) " Guna IT " song everyday at o­ne stage as if that would help us. Do you think we are not reading news reports from other sources than our local, highly controlled newspapers? Please don't treat us like we are still in the Stone Age. We are not.

Let's hope that someone finds a cure for this deadly disease soon.