I refer to the Malaysiakini report 'Democracy tree' gets 19 companions .

The Economist is one of the finest news magazines with a weekly circulation of 1.3 million and sold in 180 countries across the globe. Until the end of March 2009, the 166 year-old magazine (first published in 1843) had only two regular columns - one on America and the other on Britain. Both the columns were introduced in 1986 by the then editor Rupert Pennant-Rea.

From the first week of this month, the magazine has introduced a column on Asia called ‘Banyan'. Justifying the column in April 8 print edition it says ‘it's time for a column about half the world's people'. Introduction of such column certainly signifies the growing importance of Asia and the Perak ‘democracy tree' is mentioned when it justifies the name of column - Banyan.

The column started like the following opening paragraph: ‘Some 165 years, 161 years and 114 years since its correspondents first filed reports respectively from Calcutta, Shanghai and Yokohama, The Economist this week launches a column on Asian affairs. We have taken a while, but is this not, after all, to be the Asian century? We think probably so.'

It added ‘For some, however, dedicating a column to the idea of Asia is to jump the gun by many years. Lexington writes of a clearly etched polity with a written constitution, Bagehot an unwritten one. A constitution is still not within the grasp of the European Union, but the ‘European project' provides a justifiable basis for Charlemagne.'

‘In Asia, an insipid collection of regional and sub-regional clubs amounts to something far short of a continental project. The last powerful intellectual push for pan-Asianism was promoted nearly a century ago by Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali Nobel laureate.

‘He was rapturously received on tours in China and Japan, where he urged people to counter Western imperial might and material with sacrifice and an Asian spiritualism,' the columnist goes on.

Answering the question - why ‘Banyan', the magazine commented that a dearth of pan-Asian images speaks volumes, but the banyan tree serves better than most, for it or similar trees are found somewhere in most Asian countries. The banyan spans Asia's spirituality and its entrepreneurialism.

‘The Bodhi tree, under which Buddha attained enlightenment, was a banyan by another name. Gujarati merchants conducted business under it, and the Portuguese lent their name, banyan, to the tree. It stuck.

‘In early March, in Perak in Malaysia, the state assembly convened an emergency session under a tree. It was, said outraged national ministers, a return to the jungle, making Malaysia a laughing-stock,' it added.

‘We beg to differ', the columnist said adding that ‘an ancient connection exists between public business and the banyan tree, as between its huge overarching shade and its deep intertwining roots.'

In South-East Asia, and Java in particular, the shade was a place of learning and a site where rulers vowed justice. Those are Asian values to which Banyan will happily subscribe, the magazine editor hopes.

I find what's going on in Perak over the tree is silly and ridiculous. It's something like a big fuss over a small tree. Both sides are trying to score as many political points as they can but in a ‘childish' way.

As Malaysiakini reported that ‘democracy tree' gets 19 companions when the Ipoh City Council planted 19 more plants around the tree in an apparent attempt to stop politicking over the tree.

But as the ‘fuss' will go on, the ‘tree' will attract more attention.