YOURSAY 'First Mahathir wanted Anwar to be made highly visible as a PM-designate. Then he wanted the latter to be erased from memory.'

Kadir: Dr M had ordered NST to 'erase memory of Anwar'

your say Swipenter: Spinning by the MSM (mainstream media) is not enough for the Umno-led government. They also have rewritten our history to fit their agenda.

If Dr Mahathir Mohamad can order MSM to erase his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, from the eyes and minds of the rakyat, it is very likely he ordered our history to be written to erase the immense contributions by the Chinese, Indians and others in resisting and fighting the Japanese invasion in World War Two and thereafter fighting the British colonial government to achieve independence for our country and after that in developing our country.

Instead the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, are demonised as ungrateful pendatangs, all out to steal the rights and wealth of our Malay brothers and sisters and glorify Umno as the defenders of the latter.

History and present events are proving who are the robbers and demons and who are the patriotic citizens of our country.

FairGame: The mainstream media in Malaysia has never been known to be ethical and professional in reporting the local political scene. They are skewed and partial to the Umno-BN agenda where the political arena is concerned.

But for Dr M to instruct the New Straits Times to "do away, and erase the people's memory of Anwar" is too much. The people, and history, will be the judge of who our ‘great leaders' and ‘evil masters' of our times are.

Goblok: It appears that balance and fair in the mainstream media, including the Chinese press, means giving opposition parties more space.

But how many of them have exposed corruption, fraud and other problems involving the BN government?

Fair and balance to the public means reporting the good and the bad of the government, not just giving a few more column inches to PKR, DAP or PAS. The people expect quality journalism, not ‘ampu' (apple-polishing) journalism.

Ferdtan: Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan said, "The mainstream media is still a very much a formidable force, you are not going to rule them out in the near future."

That is because there are no alternatives in the mainstream media. BN government knows it as it has worked well for them for the last 50 years. Readers buy such newspapers, not only for political news, but for sports, social and business news.

I can bet that if there are unrestricted licences approved to operate a daily to anyone to compete with the current mainstream media, these party-owned organisations would die instant deaths if they don't change.

That is why Malaysiakini , in spite of going to court for its right, cannot get a licence to operate a newspaper. The survival of The Star and NST will be jeopardised.

Ghkok: It is totally unacceptable that radio, TV and newspapers are still only licensed to pro-BN companies. Alternative media must penetrate into radio, TV and newspapers. They must be allowed to obtain licence.

We are not asking Media Prima to change. We are not asking The Star to change. We are not asking Sin Chew to change. What they do is none of our business.

However, we the rakyat have a right to demand that the government abolish 55 years of media control and pave the way for true and genuine press freedom by enabling alternative media unrestricted access to radio, TV and newspapers.

888: The only thing that bites into the mainstream media is their bottom line. So boycotting them is the most effective way to hurt them.

Cala: For a better future, the people must change. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Nobody understands this phrase better than the West, where they despise, abhor and reject tyranny.

Following from this, liberal democracy is seen as the end goal for any civilisation. It is the utopia for any state who believes in universalism (Fukuyama, 1992, 2007).

At the other end of the conundrum, a dictator prevails since the incentive structure as a ruler is way too attractive to forgo.

In the latter case, Mahathir was in the position to desecrate, demolish, and destroy Anwar even though he was elected by party members (as in the 1997 Asian financial crisis).

As a dictator who is enjoying the hard fought power, he becomes an addict to it. Under this condition, the people in the Third World will continue to suffer for having created the very system that punishes them. The place to change is the mindset of the people.

Mat Salleh: Abang Kadir, your statement may be 16 years too late. But at least we get to hear the truth during this lifetime.

We all know this ‘Melayu celup' is vile, cruel and totally uncaring (except to his family and cronies) but it's nice to have those thoughts confirmed.

Odin: First Mahathir wanted Anwar to be made highly visible as a PM-designate. Then he wanted the latter to be erased from memory.

That shows that he thought the ordinary Malaysians were nothing more than a computer RAM or ROM. Very telling, no?

Hope for Better Malaysia: The memory of Anwar cannot be erased or reformatted in any way. Instead it will be ‘re-booted' every time.

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