RTM is a government information machinery that rarely rises above the level of being passable, but their latest foible is ludicrous.

I've not been an avid viewer of TV2 lately, but when I caught the Teleinfo segment yesterday midway through a Tamil film, I was just aghast.

The information this time was the racial breakdown of crimes in the state of Selangor based on race, indicating clearly that most crimes committed in the state were by Indians.

The question begging is, what purpose did the information minister want to achieve by letting the majority of Indian Malaysians in Malaysia know that they made the biggest contribution to crime in the state of Selangor? Mind you, this is the single most viewed slot in a week for Indians on that channel, the Sunday Tamil movie matinee.

Is it to create shame in the community or a sense of urgency to deal with the issue? If it is the latter, then it is the most misguided attempt at social reconstruction. Would it not create the same sort of racial profiling that minorities like Blacks and Hispanics in urban pockets in America experience? By justify very bigoted views that actually race is a pre-determiner of a person's propensity to be bad?

This is not a plea to sweep our social issues away, but if you want to use a piece of information to be useful to our community, you have to manage the information.

You cannot release a fairly volatile piece of information without then explaining the relevance of the information and what are the lessons to the gained from understanding that piece of information.

In short, qualify the information. Nobody acting in the capacity of governmental spokesperson - which RTM 2 is - can release information without considering the affect of the information, Judgement must be applied.

I have the odd feeling the person who picked that piece of information to be released just did not think enough. He or she did not bother about the repercussions, possible interpretations and the communal feedback it would create.

The person also did not think if the minority race mentioned would take offence, or whether it would institutionalise bias in the minds of the general population - making Indians the usual suspects for crimes even without foundation.

In short it was sloppy and insensitive, and those responsible should be hauled up by someone in RTM, that is if RTM is bothered about its social role and bear responsibility for its actions.