Referring to Tony Thien's article entitled ' Loyalty from the East ' and as a Sarawakian, I must say that I am quite upset by his rather disturbing style of writing.

I went to a government university with 30 other fellow Sarawakians. There, we met some 30 more who were our seniors living in the same block of hostel.

Three to four years later after graduating, I can say only five of them wished to return to Sarawak.

The majority of us roamed all over 'Malaya' and like me, settled down here with a permanent job and even a new family.

My point is that the education and exposure we received here, really opened our eyes about how the whole system of the Malaysian federation can benefit us back home. There is no question of where our loyalty goes to, nor is there any conflict of interest in choosing Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur during the glory days of Malaysian soccer.

Malaysia is our country, we're happy that our fathers voted for Malaysia for this is the only great place that provides opportunities the same level with the non-bumi. I may sound bias compared to Tony who might be seeing things from the eyes of a non-bumi in Sarawak. For that reason though, he has no legitimacy to write on behalf of the natives back home.

Being one of the most read news online, malaysiakini should at least support the integration programme, regardless how much you hate the government of the day. This is about reuniting the two states in Borneo with Malaya. Don't be so taksub (to blindly follow) in promoting your own press freedom that you fail to stop your writers from touching such issues.

The integration of Sabah and Sarawak takes time and this effort must be supported by the media. I thought malaysiakini might be different from the rest but apparently, by allowing writings like Tony Thien's is a serious breach of taste.

Editor's note :

In a democracy, there will be differences of opinion. Malaysiakini will continue to provide a forum for Malaysians to air their various viewpoints on nation-building. But to argue that malaysiakini should censor opinions which one group of people may disagree with is certainly not what press freedom is all about.