In Asian countries where insecure governments govern, information is not free flowing. Information is not seen as a right of the people but as a privilege of the government to reveal as and when it sees fit.

The excuse governments give in withholding information is that the people are immature and will act immaturely. It is painfully sickening when government representatives, interviewed on news channels, try their utmost to downplay the damage and death toll of natural disasters.

It was a deputy minister in Malaysia who said on TV the night after the tsunami waves hit Malaysia on Dec 26 that everything in Penang was 'back to normal'.

The information minister of India, meanwhile, suggested that the death toll in his country was only half of what was reported.

Having seismological stations all over the region is a good idea but will the warning signals ever get to the public in time and in full? The civil servant responsible for the emergency announcements will have to contend with the consequences should the threat not materialise as expected.

Will the information be suppressed much like how the Malaysian air pollution indexes are kept secret during a haze occurrence for fear that it will affect the tourism industry? Tourists are even more disgusted when they pay so much for their holidays but arrive here to a cloud of haze.

The air pollution index is to warn of air quality hazardous to the public's health. A responsible government would use this information to warn elderly people with respiratory problems, asthmatic patients and school students to limit their outdoor activities.

An irresponsible government suppresses the information so that the tourists do not stay away.

The people act immaturely to information because information is always blacked out. The Anwar interviews overseas, the spread of the Nipah virus, the dengue outbreaks, the air pollution index; we are always in the dark and yet want to call ourselves a knowledge-based society.

But we definitely have a R-based society what with the rakyat living on rumours most of the time.

Until governments in the region look upon information with a more liberal view and allow press freedom to enable the public to make their own educated views about world affairs and politics, there will always be suspicion, silly rumour-mongering and fear among the people.