At last, an opposition.

Not to decry the efforts of the DAP, PAS and other parties that have aspired to bring some semblance of balance to Malaysian politics over the years.

They've had the deck so stacked against them that they can be entirely forgiven for how ineffectually they've opposed or even criticised the endlessly entrenched bully-boys and girls of Barisan Nasional (BN).

But now BN has some real opposition. And it can't be blithely ignored or dismissed as some feeble fundamentalist fringe-group or make-believe party of meddlers, misfits and malcontents.

In fact it's not a party at all, but a person. Or more accurately a personage. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, alone and single-handed, in full spate, and of course spite.

To be sure the Malaysian news media, the party-owned newspapers and the prime media free-to-air TV monopoly, have dutifully done their best to write the situation off as just a "spat" or a typical Mahathir stunt, or downplaying the whole thing altogether.

And Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi aka Pak Lah, was at first almost silent in his public response, saying only that Mahathir is entitled to his opinion as Malaysia is a democracy.

Malaysia is nothing of the kind, of course, as a genuine democracy is, as Abraham Lincoln memorably phrased it, "government of the people, by the people, for the people."

Not government of the people, as it's been for far too long in Malaysia, not by the people at large but by a self-appointed "elite" of "leaders" who rig the rules, flout the laws, suppress dissent and crush criticism in favour of themselves, their relatives and cronies; and certainly not for the people, who are expected to be grateful for whatever they get or at least to keep their complaints to themselves.

For the two decades during which Mahathir headed this fraudulent "democratic" system, he seemed quite content with the situation. In fact he appeared to do everything in his power to perpetuate it, and employ it quite shamelessly to his advantage.

But now, it appears, he's determined to assert his right to criticise, ask questions and demand answers of the government, just like the opposition, the press and the populace do in genuine democracies.

Democracy by default

Not that I'm suggesting that he's changed. As always, he's showing himself to be a fighter. And again as always, out of instinct rather than idealism, and for his personal pride as well as, if not in preference to, the public good.

But whatever Mahathir's motive for bad-mouthing his successor - whether he's simply making mischief, or miffed at what he sees as monstrous mismanagement, or even, as some I think foolishly suggest, showing symptoms of senile dementia - he's mounting a more powerful challenge to BN's monopoly of political power and opinion than most Malaysians have seen in their lifetimes.

And if Malaysia's journalists had the mettle and the moxy to follow his lead despite the protests of the political pawns and puppets they work for, and if the Malaysian people could see this as a watershed moment, maybe history would someday remember Mahathir, not for the malice, mendacity, malfeasance, magniloquence and outright megalomania he all too often manifested in his years as prime minister, but as the man who, if only by default, brought true democracy to Malaysia.

Abdullah has, after all, and apparently with the backing of everyone from cabinet down to the Backbenchers' Club, agreed to respond to Mahathir's questions in detail and in public. Whether he's as honourable a PM as he appears, and not just a plausible front-man for business-as-usual behind the scenes as some suspect, only time and events will tell.

But meanwhile, given his apparent readiness to allow one citizen - albeit one as eminent as Mahathir - to criticise and question his government and refuse to take either nonsense or "no comment" for an answer, just like what happens in genuine democracies, I think we should take him at his word. Who knows?

Maybe his constant assertion that Malaysia is already a democracy isn't so much mistaken, insincere or cynical as a sign that he intends to make it one.

And maybe, with all the help and encouragement Mahathir's giving him, and with the support of the millions of other Malaysians who'd love to live in a truly free country, just maybe he can do it.

DEAN JONES is an Australian freelance journalist now living in Kuala Lumpur and a former occasional columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald.