In reference to Dr Noordin Sopiee's statement that Malaysians have come of age and have attained "record-breaking feats" by reason of having overcome the "psychologically crippled" syndrome as a result of years of colonialism, I would suggest that he has seen nothing yet.

See report in Record-breaking feats overcome barriers of success: Isis chief (April 3).

Wait till the Malaysian intelligence is unleashed that is not yet because of the still prevailing "psychologically crippled" syndrome of fear of thinking and speaking aloud as a result of years of autocratic rule and muzzling of free speech through draconian laws like Printing Presses and Publications Act, Sedition Act and the fear of reprisals from police action.

Parliamentary secretary to the Information Ministry Zainuddin Maidin also said Malaysia's media practitioners should redefine press freedom according to the country's racial and economic sensitivities instead of being the "dog of the western media imperialists".

How many definitions can there be to press freedom? Is there a Malaysian press freedom or an Asian press freedom different from the Western one?

There is only but one press freedom  the freedom to report the truth, and the truth does not have different Malaysian, Asian or Western shades.

In terms of improvement of national life, we cannot afford a cowered mainstream press that separates the wheat and chaff of national life in order to print only the chaff.

Of course Zam is right to say that just because a newspaper shows support to the government it does not mean that there is no freedom.

By all means let some the newspapers support the government but in doing so, level the playing field, and let those who would criticise fairly the government's policies also thrive and not banned, prosecuted and put out of business.

It is from adversarial contention and contrariety of conflicting viewpoints that the truth be gleaned (that is by the way how our courts work).

Raising the bogey of racial and economic sensitivities is to denigrate the level of maturity of our countrymen who are supposedly incapable of appreciating on an objective level the discourse of such issues and ever ready to go "amok" when they are raised regardless of their merits.

What is overlooked is that there should be more open discourse of such sensitive issues so that over time they will be viewed less sensitively, and more objectively.

Our elites have shown considerable "firsts" in their management of international issues as well as domestic even if the international posture is contradictorily divergent from the domestic's.

At the Brisbane Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had endorsed the upholding of the freedom of expression as a principle in the Coolum Declaration, and Zam reconciled this with the restrictions on press freedom here with this lame excuse, "We can endorse anything at the international level but that doesn't mean that we cannot practise press freedom our way."

No matter how brilliant such a dichotomous strategy, to say one thing internationally and to practise another domestically only evinces a triumph of hypocrisy over sincerity towards both international as well as domestic target audiences.

This is reminiscent of the credit Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad gets in the eyes of the Americans when contrary to the majority opinion in recent Organisation of Islamic Conference meeting here on terrorism, Malaysia took the international stand that the definition of terrorism extended to attacks on civilians by Palestinian suicide bombers, and in the next breath to Bernama, the domestic audience was informed that under certain circumstances the attacks on civilians could not be helped and might well be justified on grounds of the superiority of the terrorist other.

The sophistication  and intelligence  of our political elites suffers its own limitations of underestimating at the same time the sophistication  and intelligence  of those under their rule and hegemony.

In the march to bring the country forward, the first step is to unwind the screws on freedom of thought and speech, allow more press freedom, so that the collective power of Malaysian intelligence can flower and be tapped for national progress and raising of standards of living and quality of life.

Then that will be the kind of achievements that gives true relevance to the mantra Malaysia boleh.

Climbing Mt Everest or parachuting to the South Pole or having the tallest building in the world means nothing, and may even sound juvenile if Malaysians were not allowed to freely express themselves by reason of their stultified minds.

The true and meaningful "firsts" that Malaysia can claim is where the collective intellect and intelligence of her citizenry, nurtured and bred in diversity, are released from the chains of authoritarian restrictions and be allowed to flower and be harnessed by the government in the implementation of national and public policies for the common national good in the march forward.