When talking about spin-doctors, the Malaysian government surely has a lot of volunteers. But government boot-lickers far outnumber these spin-doctors. At least we know spin-doctors are politically motivated, perhaps it is even understandable for the government to have such people.

However, I think that the Star’s VK Chin should reassess his analysis on which group is actually manipulating Malaysians when he said the following:

‘Their pro-active stance is to counter the negativity generated by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which was responsible for several illegal demonstrations in the Klang Valley recently.

‘Unless the majority stands up and be counted, the constructive contributions of other NGOs could be negated and the Indian agenda would then be manipulated by a very small noisy group prepared to break the law to achieve their objective’.

And the writer continued to say, quite adamantly I must add, that these people - all 30,000 of them which took part in Hindraf’s recent peaceful - were duped into a making the protest. Duped into making a protest out of nothing? Duped into thinking that the government has marginalised them with their racist policies? Duped into thinking that Hindu temples that were bulldozed over were mere illusions? Duped into thinking that they are all stupid?

He thinks and believes, without a doubt, that all 30,000 of his fellow Malaysians are dumb and don't really know how to think for themselves. If not, why else would he make comments such as these:

‘Those responsible for such unlicensed gatherings are good at using the gullible to support them by making all sorts of promises, financial or otherwise, they can never hope to keep’.

‘In response to such temptations, some of them had been misled into participating in illegal gatherings and processions, resulting in their arrest’.

‘The dropping of the attempted murder charge is sensible since many of them were duped into committing the offence because they were being made use of’.

Putting the talk of tales aside, the Hindraf rally was a huge success. Look at how the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president is now saying that he'll reform his party; that a council will be formed to address so-called ‘Indian problems’ (they are Malaysian problems by the way) and that there will be more help for the Indian community in the future, eg. in raising the level of education opportunities.

At least the rally - regardless of it being held without the ever-elusive permit - managed to raise the amount of attention and awareness needed by the community. It really boggles the mind that the government was not aware of the problems faced by the ‘rakyat’. Or perhaps our government knew, but just didn't care enough to do much. That says a lot about MIC's performance in its supposed role in championing the ‘Indian needs’ in the country - bad, very bad.

All that mainstream newspaper editors know how to do is toe the line - even if it means issues are swept under the carpet. To them, adhering to proper channels are more important than raising awareness. They are irked when people started rocking the boat. How dare they! And to stop this uncalled for rocking of the boat, they will continue to condemn - however untruthfully - the very people who have managed to pushed the government into making changes.

Perhaps they should stand in the coming elections under BN instead of pretending to be journalists.