Personally, it is extremely heartening to note that although malaysiakini has been around for less than a year, it gets more than 100,000 daily visitors (e-Asia advertising statistics, which is based on the standards set by Audit Bureau of Circulations) - higher than the current circulation figure of The Sun and just a little lower than that of the New Straits Times .

This is despite the massive financial, political and bureaucratic constraints it is under. And this is on top of the kudos it has been receiving over this short period of time from a variety of organisations and individuals both locally and internationally.

But as web-based newspapers like malaysiakini expand and become more popular among the cyber community, some argue that this popularity is not a wide-ranging one. They blindly assert that these media are not read by the policy makers, hence what they have to say has no effect on policy.

Secondly, and in relation to this, it is also asserted (blindly again) that these media are all about hitting out at the government, providing only opposition news and not objectively considering the establishment's points of view.

We can of course dismiss these assertions as a load of drivel, the rabid ranting of die-hard Utusan Malaysia readers or/and "Buletin Utama" (TV3) viewers. But doing so would essentially bring us down to the base level of these sad individuals.

Instead, let us examine these assertions, using malaysiakini as our example.

First, the fact that malaysiakini has been refused an official pass to attend and cover government functions implies that the powers-that-be do monitor/read it. Also, at least one major English language newspaper keeps a daily watch on malaysiakini to prevent it from being scooped.

More important than this, however, is the fact that, contrary to what's being asserted and unlike the mainstream media, malaysiakini isn't so much about addressing and impressing the policy makers as it is about addressing issues and helping to create much-needed space for a civil society.

It is about bringing to the fore a range of issues and ideas that have been - and still are - marginalised or ignored by the mainstream media and, subsequently, encouraging healthy public debate about these issues. In short, it is principally about helping to conscientise the Malaysian public.

So, sure, perhaps malaysiakini has no effect on policy (incidentally, pray tell, how many mainstream media have an effect on policy? Indeed, hasn't it been the other way around?). But, at the rate it is going, it is certainly going to play some role in helping the public view policy critically.

The point here is that it is highly likely that the greater the awareness of members of the public, the more intelligent will their choices be when the time comes to make major decisions about governance and other matters affecting their lives.

Granted, it's currently a relatively small public, given the limited access to computers in Malaysia. But let us not forget that it's a fast-growing public. This is something the policy makers are well aware of, which is precisely why they too are setting up their propaganda websites.

The second assertion - that these alternative media only take an oppositional stand and do not objectively consider the establishment's points of view - is equally erroneous.

We need to distinguish between the oppositional stand of, say, Harakah , and the critical stand of, say, malaysiakini and [#1] Aliran[/#]

. Anyone silly enough to accuse the latter two of being "oppositional" media, surely hasn't read the many critical pieces they have published on the opposition parties.

The trouble with many of us Malaysians is that we have been socialised for so long - by the mainstream media among others - into accepting only particular ways of viewing events. More often than not, we've been socialised into viewing these events only through the lenses of the establishment. We are constantly reminded - wrongly - that the government is Malaysia.

To view events any other way, it is constantly put, would be an act of treachery. Indeed, to question the government would mean questioning Malaysia.

Into this situation, then, comes an entity like malaysiakini , questioning not only the establishment, but also the overall conventions of mainstream media reporting and news values.

Invariably, for a public that has grown accustomed to these conventions, the arrival of malaysiakini is a bit unexpected and its reporting style unusual. Still, unusual or not, it certainly seems to be fast growing in popularity.

And at a time in our history when the mainstream media, by the admission of their own personnel, have lost much credibility, malaysiakini 's increasing popularity must surely mean that it is doing something right.

So, rather than hurling baseless accusations at the likes of malaysiakini or Aliran , perhaps these very same people ought to start looking at the inadequacies of the mainstream media. And they wouldn't need to look very far or very deeply to locate these inadequacies.

To cite a recent example, it was, after all, the mainstream media which very recently swooped down like bloodthirsty vultures on Shahnon Ahmad, the PAS member of Parliament for Sik and acclaimed author of "Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan" and numerous other minor masterpieces, and that much-talked-about tribute to Mahathir, "SHIT".

They hounded him about his rumoured resignation and recorded telephone conversations they had with him to be replayed on prime-time television. It came to a point where they seemed keen on pushing the poor man over the cliff, on snuffing him out altogether, so that a precious by-election could be held.

And these are the same media that have refused to provide adequate coverage of the Irene Fernandez trial. A trial that surely is of public interest. A trial that, thus far, has revealed a variety of alleged malpractices by people entrusted with the job of looking after fellow human beings, not with the job of degrading and dehumanising them.

So, in a rather despicable media environment like this, where political expediency and commercial logic are the main determinants of what's news and what's not, the arrival and expansion of web papers like malaysiakini ought to be seen as a sign of change. It should even be seen as a sign of hope.

ROM NAIN writes about the media in Malaysia, is critical of state and market control of the media, and yearns for the day when Malaysian media practitioners and educators can genuinely talk with pride about their work.