Elaine Kong's letter ('Paper takeover by MCA? Big deal!' May 23) is the best vindication yet that I've seen for my never wanting to go near MCA, much less support them.

How you cannot see that political parties owning newspapers compromises the latter's integrity and claim to fair coverage - emphasis on 'claim to', not 'fair coverage' - is really quite beyond me.

It's the same thing as a judiciary - to preserve their integrity the papers have to be seen to be fair, as well as be fair. I don't know whether you really believe your own hype or are just trying to spread propaganda. I don't know which is worse either.

How can there not be a conflict of interest when there are clear examples of editors and writers in all the government-owned media being sacked when they do not tow the party line?

Political parties sometimes don't even make the distinction between what belongs to the people and what belongs to them. Note Barisan Nasional's reaction to accusations that RTM was giving it more coverage during the last election

I believe it was the information minister who said something to the effect of why not? They belong to the government and we are the government anyway. Obviously the demarcation between government and party is not very clear there. I doubt the demarcation between party and 'business interest' is any clearer.

Of course there is nothing wrong with MCA owning money. It can own all the money it can legitimately get its hands on. We are objecting to it owning another newspaper. It's not the same thing.

Your goading - "Are you losers jealous of MCA?" - and not-very-subtle (not very intelligent either) attempt to equate legitimate ownership objections with a bogeyman - "Are you people communists who want to nationalise private properties?" - are pathetic.

There is also nothing wrong with communism itself - only the people who miscarried its aims. I would say more to defend communism and argue further about the Internal Security Act (ISA) but you seem to be writing more, like a mosquito, to annoy than seriously debate the issues at hand. So I shan't waste my time.

As to not investing in the media - malaysiakini here is one such example of people doing so. What are you talking about? And if the other parties have their own papers, let's see the government handing out permits for them to be published more frequently (daily) and on a larger (national) scale, can we?

Lastly though - MCA does not fight for Chinese rights. It fights for the privileges of rich Chinese who want to get richer. While there may have been previous leaders in the party who believed in the right things, nothing I have seen of MCA - my local MP, or its leaders - has convinced me that you are anything more than a bunch of petit-bourgeoisie, petit-minded lapdogs.

I can certainly fight for my rights as a person, and against something like an Islamic state without having to resort to your (and MCA's?) mindless, chauvinist clarion call of "rights for the Chinese". It's anyone's right not to have an Islamic state - even a Muslim's.

I have rights as a person, not as a Chinese, and I will not settle either for a cheap discount on them through your cringe-worthy "negotiations" with Umno.