As I was lazing about the house on a warm Sunday afternoon, a friend whom I had not met for many moons surprised me with a call. He suggested that we meet and I promptly agreed.

Thirty minutes later, we found ourselves at a watering hole, sipping on drinks, whose names we could hardly pronounce and laughing in reminiscence of days gone by.

Our flashbacks, however, were cut short by an individual who decided to join us. We shall call him Tom.

Following the customary introductions, a beaming Tom popped the usual icebreaker, "So, what do you do?"

I replied and his smile vanished.

A brief silence followed, punctuated intermittently by the rapping of his knuckles on the wooden table...Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Hmmm, Malaysiakini....I see," he reflected aloud, his fingers now tapping on a glass mug...Tink! Tink! Tink!

Then with a deep breath, he fired the familiar six million dollar question, "You guys are opposition supporters right?"

After four years with this organisation, such queries have become commonplace. Normally, I would shrug it off since engaging in a lengthy debate on press freedom can be rather tedious, especially on a hot day.

But on certain occasions, I do try and explain that an independent media does not necessarily mean that it is bent on toppling the government.

Vile opposition

Now with Tom, it was not so much his perception of malaysiakini that motivated me to write this article, but rather the manner in which he uttered the word opposition.

His tongue twisted more than usual, and each letter emerged slowly and contemptuously. Even his face contorted and on it, a smirk of disgust.

From the tone, it was obvious that in Tom's mind, the term opposition ranked among the more detestable words in his vocabulary, probably lurking someplace between 'vile' and 'treacherous'.

Intrigued, I prodded him.

According to Tom, the opposition is simply bad. His reasons:

Malaysia has made tremendous progress (read: Skyscrapers, swanky clubs and colossal shopping malls) under the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership.

This was a fair point, we ourselves were seated in a cosy club.

Undeniably, there has been economic progress, for which BN must be credited. However, not all schools of thought equated progress with concrete structures.

On the same note, this rapid development had also opened a pandora's box on corruption and social problems.

But Tom was not interested in these 'trivial' details.

Second argument.

The government has managed to foster racial harmony and integration among the various races. In certain countries, religious and racial differences see bloodshed on a regular basis.

Another salient point. Malaysia is generally harmonious. In fact, there were three different races at our table.

However, I am not entirely convinced about integration, it appears to be more of a tolerant co-existence..

One must also not forget how fragile this unity is, as demonstrated by the 1969 riots and the recent clashes in 2001.

Our history, is not without its bloodstained pages.

But Tom saw no cause for alarm as long there were nasi lemak, chee cheong fun and banana leaf rice shops located on one street. I could not argue with such mouth watering logic.

Jaded viewpoint

Last but not least.

The opposition and its supporters are unpatriotic and their sole aim is to plunge the country into chaos or return it to the dark ages, the latter said with PAS in mind.

At this point, I felt like standing and applauding our honourable information minister and his esteemed deputy.

Their relentless effort in exposing the 'evil ways' of the opposition and the importance of exorcising it from our Parliament has not been in vain.

On a personal note, I am not a supporter of any opposition party here. But for the sake of democracy, let me continue.

Tom seems to have been infected by this widespread virus that gives Malaysians a jaded view about patriotism.

Is it the love for one's country or the government of the day?

Could it be that in Malaysia, the government of the day has become the government of decades and is en route to becoming the government of the century, that people can no longer tell the difference.

Do we call this progress? Are shopping malls and clubs constructed to prevent the masses from seeing beyond the neon lights?

By the way, Tom agreed (for the first time during our hour-long conversation) that our country has an unhealthy obsession with lights.

This is not progress, I mused aloud, it is downright regressive. But Tom, reverting back to his normal self, disagreed.

And I agreed to disagree since differences of opinions and contestations of ideas are important facets of a healthy democracy.

A hypothesis.

Let us assume it is an election year in the United States of America and George W Bush is voted out in favour of a Democrat.

Will the country plunge into chaos? Will the Toms flee to Canada before a 'non-patriotic' opposition politician sets foot in the Oval office.

Or since Bush is now hypothetically on the other side of the fence, will they pursue him with stakes in hand?

Bringing me back to reality, Tom (the Malaysian version) dutifully pointed out that the US has bigger malls and swankier clubs.

So 48 years (or is that 42) after independence, this is what Malaysia has become.

A nation that takes pride in its shopping malls and insignificant world records (longest mooncakes and biggest fruitcakes).

Do not be surprised if our future generations start believing that MidValley is the country's capital. Or a century from now, Berjaya Times Square gets gazetted as a national heritage site.

Have our minds been skewed to the point of failing to understand the basic tenets of democracy?

Dear Toms,

The opposition here may not be the light at the end of the tunnel but their presence is pivotal to the democratic process.

Different ideologies and principals, do not necessarily make people evil.

We are often told to celebrate our racial and religious diversity. So why not celebrate the same in politics.

(After the exhausting debate, the writer, Tom and his friend headed off to the MidValley mall for a movie)

RK ANAND is malaysiakini's assistant news editor.