So there I was, having one of my regular visits down to my favourite comic shop, expecting to pick up my latest monthly fix of comics. Looking at my latest shipment, things looked pretty good and promised a good weekend's worth of reading material, ranging from Jeff Smith's Bone to J. Michael Straczynski's Amazing Spider-Man. Overall, a pretty good haul, and I was happy.

Then I was informed by the store proprieter that the much-hyped first issue of Elektra by Brian Michael Bendis has apparently been banned, as well as Kevin Smith's latest graphic novel, Chasing Dogma. Granted, I did not order nor did I ever intend to purchase these books, but that's beside the point. The point is, our esteemed censorship board, or whoever the hell it is that is in charge of banning publications and defacing magazines with black marker pens, has chosen to ban these items for no good apparent reason. Some may argue that Greg Horn's cover portrayal of Elektra may be considered too provocative for certain brooms-stuck-up-their-arse-conservative members of the Malaysian public. Okay, so they may be offended by it. But is that any reason to ban the thing? Let's consider the actual distribution of the book. Anyone in this country who reads Western comic books will realize that comics are just not available outside of the few comic specialty shops we have. And the only imported comic books we'll find in the newsstands outside of the Archie titles will be the occasional issue of Batman or Superman. In fact, it is doubtful that non-comic buyers are even aware of the existence of this character, much less the title itself.

With that in mind, one has to wonder, just who the heck do these so-called guardians of our moral values think they are protecting? Geriatric citizens with heart problems? Pre-pubescent teens who will get an erection every time they see an image of an attractive woman? Perverts who will buy the book and masturbate all over it because the book focuses primarily on an attractive female assassin? If this is how the powers that be view the mental state of the teenagers and young adults of this country, then this is a sad state indeed, and I for one, being a member of this particular demographic, feel particularly offended.

I happen to be a 22-year old male comic book reader. Therefore, based on popular public perceptions, I should be a physically unfit, culturally deprived, pimply-faced loser, who breaks into cold sweats and stammers when confronted by a member of the opposite sex, and masturbates while watching sleazy pornographic videos on my computer. After all, doesn't that describe all comic book readers? Therefore, our moral authorities should do all they can do remove comics with unhealthy elements in them in order to stop us poor souls from becoming lonely sexual deviants, as we are apparently destined to become. Do I fit any one of those descriptions above? I may not have a six-pack nor am I an Adonis in any way, but I do exercise on a regular basis. I read the newspapers daily, as well as magzines such as IT Times, IMIS Journal, and Asia Inc. on a regular basis. I listen to musicians ranging from John Williams, Dr Dre to Sarah McLachlan. I have read many works of literature, including Shakespeare's MacBeth, Jules Verne's The Time Machine, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. I feel comfortable having actual, intelligent conversations with men and woman alike, and while I admit to having watched pornography, I have done so out of pure curiosity and is not exactly an important part of my life. Do I feel that I need protection from these so-called negative elements, which may devastate my oh-so-fragile moral fibre? If I did, then I wouldn't have written this article in the first place.

What made me so angry over this latest round of censorship? After all, I have already been deprived of the opportunity to read Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub. Why should I cry over Elektra or Chasing Dogma? It is because it a sign of things to come. Will they next target other wonderfully enjoyable titles such as Liberty Meadows or Wonder Woman, both of which regularly feature physically attractive women on their covers, or even books with violent content such as Punisher, The Authority, or Katsuhiro Otomo's literary epic, Akira? Comics is just a minor victim in our authorities never-ending quest of removing any and all perceived 'offensive' material from our delicate porcelain-esque psyche. Hell, we are all just a flock of fucking mindless sheep who are easily swayed by the machinations of the evil Westerners who are hell-bent on raping our country and culture. And should we be unprotected, there would be chaos in the streets and anarchy will ensue as we go around fucking our brains off and worshipping Satan before eventually devolving into godless, culturally-retarded, sexual deviants. Is the Malaysian public so ignorant as to be unable to ascertain and differentiate by themselves the good and the bad? I would like to think not. As a society, I think that Malaysians in general are intelligent enough to not require draconian censorship practices anymore.

Are banning things really an answer? Banned publications such as pornographic magazines are easily available if you know who to ask the right questions, and banned movies are just as accessible in your average night market. What about censorship? I remember watching The Devil's Advocate on the big screen and was appalled at the butchering it received. My solution? Go to the local pasar malam and purchase the bootleg VCD copy, which not only costs just a fraction of the compromised original home video version, but is also a better product overall.

In short, banning or censuring items is not an effective form of protection. I am not saying we give children full access to magazines such as Hustler or movies like From Dusk Till Dawn. This is the responsibilities of parents or guardians. And adults should be given a choice of whether or not they want to peruse such material, without being given a blanket to cover their head with by the authorities. People will always seek out what they want if they desire it enough. I love Dr Dre's last album 2001, and downloaded the entire album in MP3 format simply because the CD is unavailable here. I made the effort to find it, and I managed to locate materials, which have been deemed unsuitable by the so-called authorities.

Censorship also makes people curious. Any one of us who reads the papers daily will see the increasing trend of promiscuity and social problems amongst teenagers and young adults. People like me. I remember being particularly curious about sex and the associated subjects back when I was approaching puberty. Scratch that. I was extremely curious, and whatever knowledge my friends had were pure bunk and hokum, and what they knew where appropriated from pornographic books and magazines. I consider myself lucky because my mom gave me the 'birds and the bees' talk back when I was 13, and I think that gave me a healthy outlook regarding the concept of sex as well as respect for women, and an understanding that they too are human like me, and are not pieces of meat who exist for me to ogle at just to satisfy my sexual desires. Incidences of people committing heinous acts such as rape and other sexual crimes can be traced back to inadequate education and unfulfilled curiosity, linking back again to censorship.

Less censorship and rampant bans on movies More education and awareness. Less totalitarianism and secularism. More creative and expressionistic freedom. In my humble opinion, these are what will make us a more enlightened public. All that is needed for these to happen is to have the public's voices heard and for the government and authorities to put their trust and faith in our internal moral compasses.