In his attempt to attack my criticism of the American press in regards to their conduct in the American invasion of Iraq, CK Ng ('American press is objective') had to resort to shameful tactics by accusing me of things that I did not mention or even allude to, namely:

  • That the American press houses are owned by American political parties.

  • That I was attempting to "to justify the current state of affairs in the much hobbled and morally delegitimised Malaysian press".

  • That when I suggested that there ought to be a sense of fair play, particularly from the free press (what's good for the goose should be good for the gander), I was hankering for "gruesome images of injured and dead" and " about showing graphic pictures, or how many Iraqi dead we had seen on television or newsprint." This third point is deserving of a mention in the Book of Dirty Tricks.

Take away his bombast and his attempt at a pseudo-intellectual tour of the various press institutions of the USA, and what we have has been his grudging admittance of the points of criticism I levied at the American press. Remove the camouflage of such words as 'superficiality', 'errors in conclusion and judgement', 'disappointing viewpoints', 'polemic reasons', etc, and what do we see in the substance of such words nothing more than excuses to dilute or overlay the truth of what had occurred.

Today the American occupation of Iraq is the most central issue, if not the central issue, of US politics. It is an occupation that has killed, and is still killing hundreds of American young men and wounded many more, apart of the tens of thousands that it has already slaughtered. The suffering brought on by the instability and the uncertain and ominous future are causes for deep concern, not only for Iraqis but for Americans and the rest of the world as well.

The fact that the American had practised press freedom in the past, and undoubtedly will in the future, and that it has woken up when the war has turned sour, does not excuse the reality that it did too little, too late during a point in time when its more inquisitive voice could have moderated and even neutralised the Bush administration's reckless and illegal venture, and saved lives. 'Compliant' was the description given by some more alert American journalists.

In general, the American press passivity at that time leading to the invasion, and during it, had provided succour to the Bush administration. The untruthful case for war, the fabricated Jessica Lynch saga as a rallying story for the war effort, the demonisation of Iraqis have all been propagated relatively unquestioned, let alone challenged.

Ng puts forward the issue that "America is at a war against a largely disparate group of people who have taken up a religious faith into an extreme debasement - to which no reasoning can be had, nor, compromise can be sought" as if one ought to accept and tolerate all those spins from the most free press in the world? What has the 9/11 incident got to do with Iraq and the Iraqi people? Ng ought to stop from being an apologist for the Bush administration.

The USA press have had 220 years of experience, yet like the noble Homer, they nodded in the case I brought up. But Malaysia has had only less than 50. Yes, the Malaysian press is generally pretty tame and generally nothing more than a mouthpiece for the government (though we may claim a free press in malaysiakini).

But if a Malaysian system is bad, of course we should criticise it so it may improve. We do not condemn it to eternal damnation.

Time and experience and public support are what we need. As an example of time and experience, today the USA may be the example of democracy and equality, but just 50 years ago, it had segregated bus seating! And what about a hundred years before that?

But Ng seems to be utterly hostile to the Malaysian case. Listen to what he has to say about the American and Malaysian press.

For America, he stated, "Press freedom does mean there is freedom to 'spin'", but for the Malaysian press (bad as they are), he condemned them as, "the much hobbled and morally delegitimised Malaysian press".

Let me end with a Chinese saying for CK Ng to ponder, "The heavens made man so that his fingers may bend inwards, and never outwards".