Brothers all, they will publish what NST , for instance, will work hard to hide away. Instead, NST's homepage, or its front page or national buttons, did not report the intense courtroom developments. Only a search of the words Anwar Ibrahim yielded the report, at the top of a list of 123 items. The free flow of information on the Web can only be an increasing worrying for the Mahathir regime. Where most Malaysians had access to only sanitised, pro-government reports on the media, the Internet is now giving all the news to all the people, all the time.
Public discourse is now a major information highway with no stop signs.
Where peaceful street protests are illegal unless granted a police permit, tens of thous- ands are free to vilify and valiantly report. The reformasi leader is locked away, but Malaysians have found a level of freedom they have never known before. William de Cruz worked for the NST between 1978 and 1990. He is now a NSW public servant and a freelance journalist.