The column by Fathi Aris Omar on censorship and 'cultural sanitisation' is an interesting read.

He quotes so many disturbing examples. We should be worried with this trend. It appears to me that this kind of 'extremism of interpretation of morality' has become more rampant lately...

But what the columnist has raised is not totally new. Over the past few years, we have seen such 'cultural sanitisation'.

Remember Ning Baizura's fantasy to have sex with five men in an interview with magazine FHM (July, 2000)?

Utusan Malaysia made a big issue of this until she had to apologise! What a nonsensical attitude for a newspaper!

The sitcom '2+1' was banned merely because of one character, 'Sam'. That inspired the theatre performance, 'Jangan Bunuh Sam'.

So this trend is nothing really new. We should address this issue, but who is going to raise it? Our politicians? No way... they are equally conservative.

Fathi is right when he says that our cultural activists and human rights advocates should be worried and that they must address this issue seriously. But have we made a move?