I have been thinking of the notion that are we, ordinary Malaysians, the willing executioners of the current ruling coalition’s - Barisan Nasional - policies?

I mean, just look at all the oppressive laws that we have been living with - the ISA, OSA, Printing Presses and Publishing Act, the University and University Colleges Act, etc. Are ordinary Malaysians deaf and blind to all these laws?

Or did we, although well informed of their notoriety, still vote for BN to rule this country not for five years but for five decades.

It's not my intention to draw a similarity between the two - Germans during the Nazi period and some Malaysians. Many Malaysians may not agree to my notion that link the Germans during the Nazi period to Malaysians now.

Well, at least 49% of the Malaysian voters were a bit more courageous in saying no to BN as the last election showed, they say. But there is one group of Malaysian that nobody would dispute if I were to link them to the Germans during the Nazi period. They are the mainstream news media people.

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist, would be proud of what they do for the current ruling parties. There is a difference between news and propaganda to begin with.

If you were to report the news for what it is or analyse an event or policy critically and would not hesitate to point out flaws, then I would say that's news. Furthermore, I think the media should not take sides politically.

The people's interests and truth should always come first. But propaganda is different. If the news/reports are always about the ruling parties’ interests and you would not criticise even if there are flaws and you would only report views from the ruling parties' officials or politicians, then that is propaganda.

Well, in reality there is no independent media. But that is okay. Look at the developed nations. I don't think they have truly independent newspapers. But they have media that are free to align themselves with any political interest. I repeat, free to align themselves with any political interest.

They have newspapers that are aligned with the Democrats, with Labour, with the Republicans, with the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats, etc, to name a few. When you allow certain media to support certain political ideas, then you also have to make sure that other media are not stripped of their right to voice out other political ideas.

Because a nation is not made up of only one political idea. There are many competing ideas that compete to win over the people's hearts and minds so that one day the proponents of these ideas can also form the government to implement their ideas. That ought to be the normal process for a normal country.

Are we a normal country? Some people say we have press freedom. The media is ‘free’ to report anything. Yes, we have a press which is free to report anything and everything that is positive for the ruling regime and report everything and anything that is negative about the opposition.

If this is ‘press freedom’, then former Soviet Union was a democracy. The media are always defending their role by saying that they have a duty to report and disseminate the ruling government's views and policy. That is good. But not copy and paste.

Because the government does not belong to only one political party. It does not even belong to a political party. One has to know how to differentiate between the two - a political party and a government. You are governing on behalf of the citizens and the citizens are taxpayers.

Every eligible taxpayer pays tax to the government regardless of what one’s political leaning is. You may have the right to govern, but it's not exclusive. And please don't treat this country as if it were your own property.

On this fact alone, I am convinced that our Malaysian mainstream media are indeed the BN's willing executor of propaganda. Believe me; you would not miss anything not reading or watching the mainstream media.

If you read and watch them daily, you would not gain any insight into policies and events but would come out even more confused and might think all BN politicians are saints and that all Pakatan politicians are the devil's messengers.

The mainstream media have a choice to either to say ‘no’ or continue being used as a tool to help BN perpetuate the repressive environment that we are now in. Sadly, as I see it, they would choose the latter.