In reference to Ms Eileen Kong's letter 'Paper takeover by MCA? Big deal!' (May 22), I would like to say that having lived overseas for more that 10 years, I have been exposed to concepts like freedom of speech and free press, and I know that to obtain a system of good and fair governance, the government should be subject to the criticism of the press.

Compare the situation in the US, where even small mistakes by the president are published all over the press, whereas in Malaysia, we have a case of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad being viewed as the people's saviour, almost Jesus-like.

This is not a healthy system to have, and going back to the Nanyang Press issue, if MCA were to control the two major Chinese dailies in its stable, then their readers would not be given a fair and accurate picture of Malaysian news, but propaganda the likes of The Star and RTM.

I think the Chinese deserve their free press, and that government ownership of media should be banned.

As for the writer's claim that the opposition are communists, I urge her to rethink what she has said, for Malaysia would not really a democracy if the voices of the people are not heard. Perhaps the government is a communist instead!