To tell or not to tell?

I wrote an article called Malaysian men are well-mannered which was published in “Your say” of Star Mag, The Sunday Star newspapers on 18 April 2004. I can’t believe the kind of responses it evokes. I accidentally discovered that it also started an 11-page provocative and lively discussion in the Forum portal of the Buysell website. The participants were skeptical that Malaysian men are well-mannered. They wondered if I was a gorgeous woman LOL. They questioned if our schools still teach manners. This discussion clearly shows that Malaysians themselves believe in the “Ugly Malaysian” maxim.
This brings me to the issue at hand. As a writer it’s always a dilemma deciding if we should write the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I’ve learnt that people, by nature that they possess feelings, cannot accept the truth but when the truth is embellished with some untruth they’ll willingly accept it as the truth. To a writer there’s nothing controversial because we are just stating the truth but society deems any truth as controversial because it hurts. I wrote that Malaysian men are well-mannered because in my experience it’s the truth. I was probably lucky to have met only the well-mannered ones.
When a writer writes what he deems to be the truth he’ll be persecuted because society finds it hard to swallow the truth. Rushdie was condemned when his book The Satanic Verses came out because society could not accept his views of a certain religion. To a writer there’s nothing controversial about anything written because if a writer honestly believes that what he is writing is the truth then he can’t be faulted. If a writer writes a falsehood on purpose to achieve fame, notoriety and profits I guess he is being irresponsible and untrue to his calling.
Sometimes, the most difficult question for a writer to answer is to tell or not to tell. To maintain his integrity I’m afraid the truth must be told, even if it hurts. Either that or not write at all, if the writer is worried that the truth might harm somebody or himself, like in the case of Rushdie. A writer must therefore possess courage in order to tell the truth and then to be able to withstand the attacks. Anything that touches on the human emotions can be turned into a controversy. So the question is to tell or not to tell! Any takers?