I CALL them the idealists and the apathetic. Poles apart though they seem, there is only one major difference. The apathetic are the disillusioned idealists.

Having friends in both camps can be interesting. The first are all fired up with dreams of how to make things better. The second are simply marking time until they get away for good.

I was having a latte with some friends in Bangsar recently and, as usual, my good friend Bun was holding court.

"What we need is a neutral space. You know, one that is apolitical. Why shouldn't an idea be judged on its merit? Why should it matter whether it comes from the government or the opposition?"

A brilliant guy who graduated from Cambridge, Bun is the proverbial rubber ball. The poet Dylan Thomas would have approved.
No matter how many times the system pushes him down for refusing to conform to its rules, he continues to bounce back and rage against the dying of the light.

Bun had put his finger on the frustration felt by a lot of us who simply wanted to get on with it. The local scene has become even more fragmented since the last elections.

Everyone is hypersensitive and you cannot open your mouth these days without being labelled as either a crony or anti-government.

Nazrin said: "People nowadays always look to see who is delivering the message rather than what the message actually is. Then they kill the messenger along with the message. Frankly, it's all become so irrational, but that's the reality."

I agreed: "Precisely. If we are to move forward, we should lend support to the best ideas. I mean, who cares what your race, gender or political affiliation is? If you question the government, they say you must be opposition. And if you question the opposition, they say you must be a crony. Why can't you question either as a Malaysian who is concerned about improvement that will benefit all?"

So much needless energy is spent in second-guessing a person's political affiliation and trying to see "where he or she is coming from" -- managing perception, wagging the dog, spin-doctoring -- it all seems like an orchestrated movement of misinformation. How efficient is all this and how will spin-doctoring ever get the job done?

Real leaders, we agreed, consider all points of view objectively and respond rationally, rather than emotionally.

Some of the blogs don't help.

While they are supposed to provide a space for open debate, what they actually do provide is a space for those who seem to have an axe to grind.

It seems a huge waste of potential. There's a difference between constructive criticism and emotional outbursts.

What we need is a platform. There are plenty of young professionals who are not interested in politics, but who, on the other hand, do want to affect policy.

As Bun said, there are probably a 1,000 policies that could do with tweaking or improvement. He was all for coming up with a platform to contribute.

A week later, I was sharing these ideas with Sam. Sam sighed, shrugged and asked in his tired way: "Look, why bother? Nothing's going to change."

I chided him: "Come on, man, that's the kind of attitude that keeps us from moving forward. Wouldn't you like to be part of something that makes a difference?"

"Look Zaf, I'm so tired of being Sisyphus, OK? You guys just go ahead and I'll watch from the sidelines."

Sisyphus, for those of us without a Classical education, was condemned to push a rock up a mountain. Every time he made it to the top, the rock would roll down and he had to start all over again. He is the classic example of someone condemned to expend all his effort in a futile exercise for eternity.

Sam is no less brilliant than Bun. He graduated from the London School of Economics and was full of schemes and ideas to change the world when he came back.

The insistent stupidity of the large organisation he found himself a part of gradually eroded his confidence and energy.

He always looks defeated now. And no matter what we discuss, I rarely see that old spark of enthusiasm.

And I wondered how we could turn this into a country where the best and the brightest want to live because the environment is so stimulating and encourages creativity. How do we reverse the brain drain?

When I look at those like Sam (whom my good friend Bun affectionately refers to as the cop-outs), I see only their frustrated creativity that turned to apathy.

And I know that this depressing state of affairs is contagious. These were good, smart, educated, switch-ed-on people who could contribute tremendously towards nation building.

Instead, they were busy looking for ways to get out of this country and help build other nations.

What many people in power seem to miss is that contribution is more than politics or corporate social responsibility. It is a human need.

We all need to feel we are affecting our community and country in a positive way.

I think it's this inability to feel like they're making a difference, even more so than the lack of monetary rewards, that keeps our best and brightest heading for the nearest exit.

We need a new platform to create dynamic, passionate, motivated, values-based leaders, one that encourages learning, self-expression, contribution and direct involvement.

As of this writing, Bun and like-minded friends are busy trying to hammer out the details to create such a platform. And Sam has put in his papers to migrate.

The idealists and the apathetic: where do you fit in?

The writer is the chief executive officer of TuneMoney.com. He can be contacted at www. tengkuzafrul.com