JULY 15 — Any media, print or online, has a huge responsibility in being decent as it may create a false and inaccurate perception of whom they write about. There is something called decency which both Malaysia and Singapore live by.

The Western media and most often their governments, too, are always trying to run Malaysian and Singaporean governments down into the mud.

They thrive on human rights abuses, nepotism, cronyism, “tainted” judiciary, our style of governance and our brand of democracy.

Why is it that Malaysia and Singapore have to be shaped along the lines of their style of democracy?

I strongly disagree, and am of the opinion that, too much democracy kills. For the best of the majority of each of our populations, the respective governments put in place certain measures, laws and curbs.

Does it require the endorsement and approval of the Western and sometimes even the Australian governments before these measures are implemented?

Why can’t they leave us be, and showcase our successes, our economic strengths and the other achievements resulting from collective tolerance and acceptance over half a century of independence?

We, both Malaysia and Singapore have never been perfect in our style of governance or our style of laws. But, some of them were absolutely necessary, then and now.

We have the ISA and it was always chided by the Americans and the West. What then do we call Guantanamo Bay? The ISA maybe outdated and questionable but we definitely do not have fools running our nations.

During the financial crisis of the late ‘90s, then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad imposed capital controls to curb the flow of the ringgit in and out of the country. The International Monetary Fund and the global financial community cried foul and accused Dr Mahathir of ruining Malaysia.

Some of the accusers later kept silent and only one had the magnanimity to publicly admit that despite his earlier reservations on the controls, the measures worked. That individual was then Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong.

The verdict was out on the suicide of Dr Shane Todd who worked for the Singapore Institute of Microelectronics. The judgment ruled that Todd did commit suicide.

The Financial Times earlier this year reported that it was murder, as the work done by Todd involved military-related research for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

Financial Times reporter Raymond Bonner stands by his earlier report and cries of murder, espionage and dual-country cover-up. No retraction by Bonner, neither will there be a veiled apology.

Is this not arrogance and being typically high-handed?

I feel all these allegations, falsified reports and alleged abuses by both our governments were created to facilitate a major distraction from their own problems back home, their crime rates, their failing economies, breakdown of marriages and the like.

I once wrote to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, urging him not to entertain the Western media on one of his official visits to the US.

They would as always, and they did in a televised interview and later reported in Singapore through wire services, that the PM’s father is/was a dictator and ran a police state. They also accused Lee of nepotism, given that his wife was head of Temasek.

The last we checked, our colonial days are over, we gained independence through fair means and not though waging war, with none of the larger democratised nations coming to liberate us.

So, besides both our nations’ judiciary being “tainted” and supposedly controlled by the respective governments, what else is new?

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.