Last week, I wrote about the competition for tourism between Malaysia and Singapore, and pointed out how we dropped the ball and handed the popular image of our culture over to our marketing-savvy neighbours.

I prefaced the with a concern about being dismissed as a Singaporean sympathiser, knowing full well the large segment of Malaysians that read it.

It went as expected.

"Are you secretly Singaporean Mr Nicholas Cheng?" asked one commenter on The Star Online's Facebook page.

"Who is nicholes cheng?? Motives behind this article?" read another comment.

"May I know what is the purpose or propaganda of this author," another wrote.

Some were so upset that I had pointed out Malaysia had not allocated a budget for tourism promotion for 2019, that they emailed me, to question – why did I just focus on 2019?

"This started with BN," one person wrote. "You saying that is Pakatan's fault?"

Let me try and describe to you why I think this is a ridiculous situation, in the most relatable way I can think of.

Let's say we are all Manchester United football players. Jose Mourinho is our boss. He has been making some arguably bad calls which makes us play badly and lose to our rivals.

Then I say; "Hey, we're not doing well. Liverpool seems to be doing something right because they're top of the league. Maybe we should look at what they're doing and see how we can do better than that."

One would hope people will conclude: Our teammate is trying to point out a weakness so we can do better.

But in this situation, some people are thinking: Oh my God. He must be a Liverpool sleeper agent. He is trying to influence us to hate Manchester United and destroy Old Trafford from the inside.

Others are thinking: Why are you trying to make Jose Mourinho look bad by pointing out we aren't doing well under him? Sure he's the current boss but we should be focusing on David Moyes and Louis van Gaal!

Some readers have approached me and my friends to try and figure out what my allegiances are, because apparently I've been vague about who I support and who I don't.

He wrote a positive piece on Anthony Loke, is he a DAP supporter? He said Pakatan Harapan supporters are having double standards, is he a Bossku fanatic? He wrote favourably for Icerd, does he hate Malays? But wait, he also criticised urban liberal mentality, is he a secret conservative? Whose side is he on?

But why do I have to pick a side? Why does criticising one political party automatically mean I must be a supporter of their rivals? Why does disagreeing with the policies that only benefit some groups mean I must be a hater of those groups?

Can you not be an independent person who can see the merits and weaknesses of each individual party, policy or situation? Can you not disagree with your team and still be on the same team?

Evidently, some don't grasp this concept.

Articles are read not for thought or information, but to either support if it affirms one's biases or to attack if it doesn't.

There is a very interesting op-ed by Brookings from 1996, that opines that people tend to organise themselves along political and ideological extremes – wholly embracing values of one side and totally denouncing the values of the other, without much room for a moderate middle ground.

Black is black. White is white. There is no grey. Those are the only two colours you can choose from, apparently.

Maybe it's because human nature longs for the simplicity of a good and an evil. It's the defining theme of our pop culture and storytelling.

People just want to know what they are for and against, because it's easier to form an identity that way.

Anything grey or in the middle just takes too much time and effort to understand.

But in our search for simplicity, we cede our potential from being anything more than someone's yes man or attack dog.

No one but the people or parties you aligned your identities to will benefit from that.

For the record, of course I have my biases, like any human. But I think I have done an okay job in not letting those biases get in the way of facts and expressing opinions I think are fair on this column.

I will only admit to two allegiances. I am a Malaysian, and I am a media person.

My job is to present you with facts and then contextualise them so you know where Malaysia stands in the world with those facts.

If that makes you uncomfortable, maybe that means you are being given new information that you didn't know before.

It is up to you if you want to engage with it, use it to challenge or affirm your beliefs, and hopefully broaden your horizons.

Or dismiss it and just hope Jose Mourinho knew what he was doing.