Veteran journalist and now parliamentary secretary to the Information Ministry, senator Zainuddin Maidin's quixotic outrage and 'crusade' against malaysiakini is understandable, and can be understood at various levels.

One is simply that as a new man for the job, he has to establish or assert his authority and to show that he knows the stuff expected of him. It is quite normal and human, especially for people at his age, and for that matter, an appointed, not elected Yang Berhormat (The Honourable).

We need not be too nervous about that if it is the only factor. In fact, in other sectors, public and private alike, the dwindling number of old men and women in the establishments are trying hard nowadays to re-assert their authority in the age of information explosion, knowledge revolution, globalisation of trade and commerce, the rise of alternative lifestyles and thinking, the fragmentation of established societies and groupings, and the assertion of more educated, self-confident and self-efficacious youths.

In the vastly changed and unfamiliar landscape or terrain, it is only to be expected. American futurist and one of the international advisers to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project, Alvin Toffler had already predicted all these as early as 1970 in his book Future Shock , followed by two others, namely The Third Wave (1980) and Powershift (1990).

Alvin Toffler, while no Marxist-Leninist or Maoist himself, calls this type of people "reactionary" because they are living in past glories and trying to move backward and to impede the inevitable earthly progress.

Mistakes admitted

Of course, these reactionaries are still slightly better than the Luddites, meaning the craft weavers who rebelled against the introduction of power looms by destroying or burning the new machines in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

This is not an unreasonable paradigm to explain the quixotic 'crusade' against malaysiakini . The online news website is technologically novel. It is managed by highly educated, self-confident and self-efficacious youths who can never be said to be revolutionary Bolsheviks or 'mad mullahs'.

Most of them have their university or college degrees in various fields of modern and useful knowledge, and they are committed to reporting factual truths and advancing reasoned opinions premised on universal values accepted by the mainstream international community.

Of course, they make mistakes here and there, now and then, because they are only human. However, unlike the Big Brothers of the yesteryear's 'Developmental Journalism', they admit their errors and mistakes honestly whenever others or they themselves spot them.

And they allow readers to criticise them openly, either in print or on the Web. Because they have the moral courage to be self-critical, they also acquire the moral right to be openly critical of those who are not. This is a new culture for Malaysian journalism, which threatens the established value-system based on authoritarianism and the arrogance of power.

They thus cause fear and anxiety to the Big Brothers of the yesteryear's Cold War and anti-communism, as the philosophers of European Enlightenment did in the 17th and 18th centuries to the many ancient regimes.

Secular yuppies

Some Malaysians, however, worry that the parliamentary secretary is but symptomatic of a larger scheme of reaction stemming from the Old Establishment which, for the first time in the history of their existence, have to confront a really online and transparent world.

It was probably thought with foolish confidence that the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor and popularisation of Internet could easily be managed because young computer users and wizards are not interested in, or are totally ignorant of, the political affairs of the nation and the world, and high economics.

Internet was probably thought of as just another 'fast machinery'(we have to show that Malaysia Boleh ), or only for secular yuppies to order roses and condoms on the eve of Valentine's Day or modern fishermen to update themselves with the latest weather forecast.

What is horribly unexpected is perhaps the fact that malaysiakini is using an international language now being promoted fervently by Mahathir himself to report and comment on local events every day to the whole of Malaysia and the world. It also brings together ideas and viewpoints of people from across the political spectrum and different religious and cultural backgrounds.

Only eyes with questionable sighting quality would read in malaysiakini only statements of Fadzil Noor, Lim Kit Siang, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Dr Syed Husin Ali. The whole, not partial, truth is that besides these opposition leaders, top dogs of Umno, MCA, Gerakan and PPP are also featured regularly, prominently and fairly. But then, only whole minds are capable of seeing the whole picture.

In malaysiakini , not only ruling politicians and parties are praised and attacked, those in the opposition, too, are treated likewise. Editors, reporters and writers, including myself too, are praised and attacked. Politicians and mainstream journalists who have been working and living in cocoons of yesteryear must learn to live with the new reality.

Dr M's dream come true

Our minds need to be stimulated to be, in the words of the Vision 2020 statement,"psychologically liberated".

And for the first time in the history of our nation, a mainly English-language daily is being eagerly read and followed not only by those educated in English, but also Malay, Chinese and Tamil, simultaneously in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, as well as in London, Washington DC, New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Wellington, Christchurch, Singapore etc., where our young overseas students concentrate.

It is therefore a truly powerful cement of national unity and identity. In the process, many young Malaysians, especially those educated in Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, improve their standard of the English language. In this sense, malaysiakini is Dr Mahathir's dream come true.

Genuine national unity and identity forged not by force or threat but by persuasion and rational discourses, as well as a higher standard of English language, are certainly good for a multiethnic and multireligious nation. It may, however, not be very desirable in a political system based on divide-and-rule, xenophobia and secrecy.

With online news websites, the many Berlin Walls are breaking down, and breaking down fast. And this is where Mahathir's admirable vision and ideals, and the real politics of reaction of his regime confronts an inherent contradiction.

How to convince the world that Malaysia is a worthwhile country for international investment in the field of information technology and content development, if the establishment is seen by the whole world to be dominated by semi-Luddites, Boxers and reactionaries of all kinds?

Perhaps, it is time for Mahathir to seriously see to it that veteran journalists who are close to him and the regime like Zanuddin Maidin and Abdullah Ahmad, read Toffler page by page in the next few months. They must get the historical time-line and global space-scale right.

It is essential for sanity. Mahathir himself must also realise that with 'nationalist' and Cold War Quixotes as his supporters and spin doctors, he does not need rogue speculators or neo-imperialists anymore.

JAMES WONG WING ON, a former member of parliament, who is now a leading Mandarin-language opinion writer and columnist, read political science and economics at the Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.