For the first time in my life, I find myself compelled to agree with the New Straits Times, in a very unashamed manner.

Go grab a copy of its tabloid, oh no, compact version, and you will know what I mean. The paper is so much lighter now, and way easier to carry. The unhealthy distance between my workplace and all the LRT and KTM stations means being a commuter is a pipedream to me, and I won't be given the joy of riding on a train with a compact NST in hand. Still, having a smaller version of the broadsheet gives me greater pleasure of handling the paper, although the content remains dull as ditchwater.

Being an 'authoritative' English daily (thanks to its strong affinity with the authorities), the NST is 'prestigious' in that it does provide sufficient insights into the official policy of the Barisan Nasional government. This aside, to keep oneself abreast of the financial world of Malaysia, one cannot do without the Business Times. But to convert the carefree and fun-seeking Star-ists into a serious NST readers? Being small is just not enough.

The day the first copy of the compact NST hit the streets, the Malay-reading masses were also being offered a rival to the vastly popular Harian Metro by the Utusan Group. Entitled Kosmo!, the new kid on the block is said to be appealing to the young reading market of all races in Malaysia.

So, we Malaysians are seemingly spoilt for choice in a seemingly flourishing media industry. But can one confidently say that our minds are now set free?

End of history?

More than a decade ago, Francis Fukuyama in his ultra-rosy, almost utopian, analysis argued vigorously that the world was heading towards a politically democratic and economically liberal direction. Living at the end time of the history, the last man, with all sorts of entertainment and unbounded freedom at his disposal, would be bored.

Or would he?

A closer look at Singapore, a star pupil of liberal economy, would put Fukuyama's positivistic view to a severe test. There, years of economic success has failed to enhance the democratic credentials of the city state, and the enthralled media is yet to learn to stand on its own feet.

And the situation is not much better in Malaysia too. In many ways, the country is working enthusiastically towards realising a liberal economy as exemplified by the United States. So, let's have more cars to jam the roads in order to show to the world our prosperity! Yet many of the political differences can only be whispered and gossiped in private, and must not discussed aloud in public. Our Special Branch does have long ears.

Not only is Malaysia an antithesis to Fukuyama's end time prognosis, it is also a bizarre country to live in. Here, the race factor never shows signs of fatigue despite years of unity talk by politicians.

My friend and I were forced to down our drinks with record-breaking speed in order to get out of Bukit Bintang the other day, as roads were being closed to make way for a Mid-Autumn bash to be graced by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Yes, some Chinese Malaysians must have felt honoured by his presence.

We walked past an MCA fellow giving out mini-lanterns, shouting, 'take, take, free, free'.

'What free? All taxpayers' money what?' My frolic-loving cynical self talked back, and disappeared into the crowd.

This is where the irony comes in. Just when one thought the Chinese were valued highly by the deputy prime minister, who happens to be the second man of Umno, the benevolent atmosphere could not have altered sooner.

First they were raving about the fantastic leadership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi; then they were ranting about the lack of improvement of the Malay community over the last few decades. Sounds familiar? Welcome to the Umno general assembly, the only agenda of which was to debate the Malay Agenda.

Instead of addressing substantive issues and take the country forward, the general assembly is simply a season for politicians (or statesmen and women wannabes) to air their grouses: not enough Malay language programmes on TV (eh who is owning and controlling RTM, TV3 and NTV7 anyway?), the palpable insufficient Malay representation in the private sector, blah blah blah (I can hear the cat yawning on my window sill).

Stern warning

Umno Youth exco member Dr Pirdaus Ismai lost no chance to issue stern warning against Chinese 'chauvinists' and the DAP so that they do not question the Malay special rights, while assuring the MCA and other non-Malay BN partners that they remained comrades and friends.

Perhaps Khairy Jamaluddin, the deputy chief of Umno Youth, can lead his entourage to hold a protest outside the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall one day, taking the state-of-the-art monorail! I trust all the non-Malay bosses at Mtrans, which owns the monorail, never questions the Malay privileges. Yes, Khairy, the young man who was talking in English throughout a closed-door meeting with the Suqiu representatives back in 2000. Did he get booed in English at the Umno Youth assembly too?

Johan Jaaffar, the 'media professional' tasked with the job of hosting the Debat Perdana, clearly detected the sulkiness of some Malaysians over the ranting game at Umno general assembly, and has dutifully defended his bosses without fail.

But it is weird of Johan to ask others to be sensitive to the Malay language issue, while choosing to ignore the cautious zeal of those who seek to safeguard their right to vernacular education in a state constantly on a lookout for the enemy within. Or Johan is speaking on behalf of those who believe the Indians and the Chinese need not worry because they have their ancestral lands of India and China right behind them? Then one can argue, applying the same logic, that the decades-long anxiety of the Malay community over the possible marginalisation of the Malay language is unjustified too, for how on earth have they forgotten that the Malay Peninsula is a jewel of the entire Nusantara?

I am however grateful to the recent Umno general assembly, which revealed the raw fact that nothing has really changed in Malaysia, otherwise one would find it hard to explain why a rerun of a CNN interview with Anwar Ibrahim had to be axed, or why Sin Chew Daily was quick to offer a courteous, almost sycophantic, editorial on Abdullah's speech, but had slyly eschewed the racist remarks made by Hishammuddin Hussein Onn just one day earlier.

So, neither the compact version of the NST nor Kosmo! has awakened our enslaved media to its proper role, and the end of the history, as optimistically foretold by Fukuyama, is still light years away from us all.