With the judiciary on the back burner with the appointment of Mohtar Abdullah, the former Attorney-General to the federal court, the only institution that we can call our own is perhaps a free press.

The Far Eastern Economic Review report alleging that George Soros had funded Malaysiakini.com was just the ammunition long awaited by the government to manipulate the situation to further demolish press freedom locally.

The New Straits Times seized the opportunity on Feb 3 to interview the has-beens in the likes of Muhammad Taib and Zahid Hamidi insinuating foreign intervention, illegality and the harbouring of agendas.

Today, ministers are jumping on the bandwagon hitting out at malaysiakini for whatever ills the government are facing. I suppose we shall not see the end of this tiresome tirade against free press like malaysiakini for the weeks to come.

I am completely taken by surprise as to why FEER had refused to issue a retraction despite information from the South East Asia Press Alliance and the OSI stating the facts for the record. It may be possible that there is no honour in the industry after all ([#1] Review's report is false, says Seapa [/#], Feb 4)? What is FEER afraid of?

By the way if we want to put the blame on Soros for our economic crisis like The Star senior journalist who gave an interview aired over TV2's prime time news on Feb 3, we might as well blame all capitalists.

You do not have to be too intelligent to understand the reasons for the economic crisis. Currency speculation is also supported by the world's financial institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Are not our economies in Asia, including Malaysia funded by these institutions? Then there are our own homebred capitalists and wakil rakyat with nominees in industry, who borrowed colossal sums of money for mega-projects - "misallocation" of capital for quick profit ventures.

We should be worrying if we have re-built and revitalised our own institutions to combat some of the ills which accelerated the crisis, like corruption. But no, let us find ways to demolish free press.