Here’s a story of dreams.

One was a dream from a long, long time ago. It was to live in a good place. To work with and support the work of a good party of people who were truly democratic and who stood for democratic diversity in alignment with a multi-racial, multi-cultured, multi-religious and democratic, secular land of Merdeka. A people’s alliance helmed by true and good servant - leaders and filled with professionals in its party ranks.

This symbolised - for most - the true model of that Merdeka-land, the nation state that was envisaged by the pioneering Merdeka leaders, who had negotiated and encapsulated the model into a democratic social contract and who enshrined it within the rule of law contained in the Merdeka constitution.

But that distant dream remained a pipe dream, and over the years since independence I watched as dear Merdeka-land went pear-shaped and slowly turned topsy-turvy and finally went upside down into a nightmarish scenario reflecting a sad look rather like a flag flying in distress mode.

(As I could not paste here the picture of the flag I saw in my dream, please imagine a picture of an upside down flag flying in sad distress.)

But, last night I had another dream.

I dreamt I was an intrepid reporter from the free press (could have been from Malaysiakini but I’m not sure of this). I was sitting on some (dirty) bench at some shabby-looking railway station where I had just bought a (way overpriced) ticket to some destination. I waited and waited for the by now very late train. When it finally arrived, over an hour late, I saw it was belching out lots of black, unhealthy and foul-smelling smoke as it limped slowly into the station platform.

I got onto the train and looked for my seat. I found it but it was occupied by a fat cat who grinned at me and told me that the seat was already taken as it had been allocated to it on its BN free- loader riding pass.

The fat cat proved this to me by waving the free-loader pass in my face, so I had no choice but to accept this reality, and as I could not find another seat, I had to stand for the long journey, even though I had paid an additional (and extortionate) RM50 for that reserved seat on what I had thought was a bona fide purchase transaction contract!

As I stood there hanging on for dear life on that shaky moving train, I noticed several other fat cats sitting on various seats in my carriage. All appeared to be riding on the train for free using their free-loader cards issued by names such as BeaN, HmNO, MCAh!, MISee, Gerotten, etc. Some of these fat cats were stuffing their faces with various foods topped with what looked like lots of gravy (and burping at the same time) even though they appeared to me to be too fat and bloated already for their own good!

I noticed several other passengers were also standing all the way, including some frail old folk, but unfortunately, not one of the fat burpy cats appeared to bother to want to get up and offer their (free-loading) seats to these old folk who had obviously paid for their tickets and seats and so had a legitimate right to ride on that train in more comfort. So much, I thought cynically, for fair-play, chivalry, civility or maybe even that oft trumpeted and selectively wheeled out ‘Asian Values’.

I found the journey oppressive and couldn’t wait to get off this smoke-spewing gravy train filled with burping fat-cats.

As I finally got off at my destination, I looked back to see the long gravy KTM train trundling off into the distance, its receding back-end shaking and burping badly from its gravy-laden free-loading fat-cat passenger, and belching out black acrid smoke, a sorry sight for all to see. A bad result from the deliberate dereliction of duty in the due care and diligent maintenance of the state train and its engine, which had by now become so seriously corrupted and corroded, that it was posing a dangerous and nasty heath-risk for all passengers riding in it, whether on bona fide tickets or male fide free-loader ones.

Thwwwaanggg! A loud noise of some sort woke me up (luckily I thought) from this bad nightmarish dream. It was a pesky mate coming indoors after the usual night-time trip out. I sipped on some ice-cold water and went back to bed. Soon I was, peskily enough, dreaming again...

I was back at a spick and span railway station. The sun was shining and the birds were singing as I bought my ticket, this time believe it or not, at half the price I had paid earlier! I sat on that clean bench again as I waited. The train soon arrived. It was an electric-powered train, sleek in its metal exterior, its paintwork clean and shiny with no unsightly scratches. It pulled up at the station platform, its engine giving out a quiet, steady but powerful hum. It had arrived on the dot as stated on my ticket from its start-out point. I was impressed!

I got on board and managed to find my reserved seat without any hassle at all. Every one was also seated and there was no one standing any where on the train. I settled into my utilitarian but well-designed seat which I thought was functional, clean and comfy. I looked around the carriage for any burping fat cats. None appeared to be about on board, thankfully. But as I sat waiting for the train to leave, I saw some fat cats suddenly appear on the platform.

They tried to jump on the train with their free-loader MISee corrupt passes but I saw a tough man in a wheelchair wearing a judge-like wig shoo them away and prevent them from boarding, much to my relief!

Soon the whistle blew. From my seat I could see the train’s engineers and drivers come on board. All of them appeared neat, tidy and professional-looking. From where I was sitting I saw a matter -of-fact looking type from the team change the train’s destination board while the others were sort of checking over other parts of the train.

Some got on into the train driver’s compartment in the leading carriage. As they did their various tasks there, some turned around for fleeting moments, and seeing some passengers looking at them, they smiled (one with twinkly eyes had a particularly nice smile I thought) and sort of tipped their hats at the curious passengers. Then they turned around going back to their tasks and very soon the train was moving and leaving the platform behind.

And, remarkably, it had left as stated on the ticket, bang on the dot again! Wow! (always late BR, eat your heart out, okay.)

I felt quietly assured in the knowledge that this was going to be a safe and pleasant journey. As I settled into my book and to the good rocking and rolling music of ‘Move It’ (sung by a knight rock and roller called Sir Cliff Richard) from the headphones of my video-Walkman, I thought for a moment that when that professional-looking train driver had turned around just now, I could have sworn I had seen Anwar Ibrahim there with the likes of those PR folks, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Nik Aziz, and maybe even Tian Chua there as conductor, but of course I must have been mistaken, or perhaps even dreaming, for how could that be so?

As the powerful train gathered momentum smoothly and gained speed, I tucked into a tasty tuna sandwich, a slice of VN rosé cake and a hot cuppa (which I thought was surprisingly good tea considering the usual rubbish served up on trains) I thought other train operators, like that BR for instance, could take a pointer or two from ‘Keretapi Tanah Merdeka’ on how to serve good tea.

As I started dozing off, snug as a bug in a rug, into a relaxed and restful napping-mode, I glanced sleepily at my ticket once more to check my arrival time for that scheduled interview with the PM.

My Keretapi Tanah Merdeka vfm ticket stated succinctly: 22.00 hours Overnight PR ‘Move It’ Direct Express from Permatang Pauh to Putrajaya; one recharging stop at Parliament Hill and ETA PJ at 9.00am on…….(snore, snnooore..pufhhh)……

I woke up as it was time to wake up. I smiled quietly as I thought of my dreaming. Maybe, just maybe, that pipe dream from long ago might not be a broken dream after all and just might come true one day. So who knows, instead of flying upside down, that previously distressed flag might one day fly like this:

(As I could not paste the picture of the flag I saw in my dream here, please imagine that same previously distressed flag now flying upright, and fluttering happily like a bright butterfly.)

So maybe like that melodic Sir Cliff Richard sang all those years ago, good times, even better times may really be coming for everyone in Merdeka-land with maybe everything sort of coming up-a-roses like he sang. What think you wahai fellow Merdeka-landers? Like Rockin’ Willie and Jivin’ Gillie do WE SAY YEAH!