MAY 3 — I have been a journalist for the better part of my working life and on this day, World Press Freedom Day, I would like to stop and think about my job for a minute. Is it about changing the world? Many of my fellow journalists seem to think so. Is it to make a difference? Don’t we all want to do that? I think my job, quite simply, is to witness and inform. I am not special. I do not expect to be treated with deference. I do expect — like everybody else — to be able to do my job safely. I think journalists — and firemen — are probably the only professionals I know who behave counter-intuitively in dangerous situations. We run towards danger, never away from it. Even then, whenever we read about journalists killed or injured in the line of duty, we are reminded of how scary the job can be. Very often though, the job is unrelentingly boring as we sit in court or through press conferences that just go on and on. But it is all the same animal: journalism. And perhaps, like me, we do it because it’s all we want to do.

APRIL 29 — Every Bersih 3.0 sit-in around the world yesterday was peaceful except for what transpired at the tail-end of the rally in Dataran Merdeka. Because of the violence there, Bersih 3.0 is now seen as less than clean, hijacked by opportunistic opposition leaders and possibly agent provocateurs. Go beyond that. Ask yourself why thousands turned up around the world asking for clean and fair elections. Ask yourself how will they vote now. It would be so easy to dismiss Bersih 3.0 because police cars were overturned and people injured. We can fix the cars. Can we fix the people who no longer fear authority? Can the Election Commission and the government of the day rest easy knowing there is a growing number of people who doubt them?

APRIL 27 — Tomorrow, there will be a number of Malaysians who will want to go to Dataran Merdeka to sit down for two hours, because they want to stand up for their right to a clean and fair election. But the police have a court order that says they can’t be there or the roads around the historic square. At the stroke of midnight August 31, 1957, our forefathers lowered the Union Jack so that no one can tell us what we can do in our own land. Today, our own people are telling Malaysians that they can’t sit at Dataran Merdeka. We haven’t come a long way since Merdeka, have we?

APRIL 15 — The issue of absolving state-funded student loans has seen both sides scrambling to defend their positions. But what are we teaching our future generation? That it is okay not to pay back a loan if you cannot afford it, despite promising to repay? If that is the case, we might as well forgive the loans for the PKFZ and NFC. Those who proposed this idea must understand why student loans are not being repaid: The debtors are unemployable or earn too little. There are enough crutches given out by Putrajaya; do we need wheelchairs on a red carpet now? Let’s not have more deadbeats.

APRIL 12 — Ten Malaysians found out the meaning of a merry-go-round today. Their application for a judicial review of the Lynas refinery licence was rejected by the High Court because the minister-in-charge and a parliamentary panel are looking into the same thing. The judge said it was a waste of public resources if all three branches of government reviewed the same issue. Really? The parliamentary panel is just looking at clearing up the air over the refinery while the minister is hearing objections to the licence issued by the same government he serves. Will he go against what his experts say? There is this principle called separation of powers. Only the court can decide on the issue, not the minister or the parliamentary select committee. But it has decided not to. Pity Malaysia.

APRIL 5 — Today's saga of a ballet performance slated for this weekend speaks volumes about the image of Malaysian regulators. While Datuk Seri Rais Yatim says he loves ballet and his officers declare they didnot receive any application to stage Ballet Illuminations, the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre insists otherwise. Who do we believe? What do we believe? If views on Twitter and Facebook are an indication, it is that people don't believe the authorities. There is a trust deficit. And it is not something one can dismiss by tut-tutting it away.

MARCH 28 — School teachers in Johor are going for a weekend seminar on reinforcing the Islamic faith, dangers of liberalism, pluralism and the threat of Christianisation. While keeping the faith is important, equally important is to make sure Malaysia’s future — the children of today — acquire knowledge and pick up skills to compete in a shrinking world. A greater threat to them is poverty, ignorance and intolerance. We need the state to provide for basic education and if possible, more education and greater unity. Faith is a private matter. And a Muslim’s faith isn’t as brittle as some in authority make it out to be.

MARCH 23 — One can’t blame police internal security chief Datuk Salleh Mat Rasid for having a dim view of Facebook and Twitter because they make people think, and in his mind, the propensity to think bad things that threaten national security. He is a policeman and that is his job. But it is wrong to say such threats from the Internet also include allowing people “to know what was going on in and outside the country”. The only threat is to an ossified mindset that wants to hold power forever. So, they use terms like national security when they actually mean government insecurity about the fact people are connecting and collaborating beyond their control. Too bad!

MARCH 18 — So now, we have a parliamentary panel on Lynas. Not that it can decide anything except work on confidence building measures for the project. The points against the Lynas rare earth refinery are simple. One, no one knew it was a rare earth refinery, it was labelled an advanced materials plant. Two, where will they store the radioactive waste. Fine to say it will be shipped back to Australia but will it? Three, why give Lynas a 12-year tax holiday. It isn’t a refinery that everyone is gagging to invite home. The Lynas plant will operate. It will create waste. It will make money. What can the PSC do to overcome the feeling that the health of Malaysians isn’t the prime consideration here?

MARCH 14 — One wonders if Raja Datuk Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin is on the same page with Datuk Seri Najib Razak in helping poor people own a home. The Federal Territories minister said an interest rate cut for those buying City Hall flats would only save them RM82 a month on a 25-year loan of RM36,100. Only RM82. That might be paltry to the minister but not to those who are renting the flats now at RM124 a month. The flats are not new and the poor city dweller ends up paying double the loan amount once the final instalment is paid 300 months later. Is this scheme to help the poor or help others make money? We don't need Shylocks in the system but good Samaritans. I hope Putrajaya understands that.