The term “political tsunami” has been tossed around liberally of late. The political changes sweeping Malaysia have certainly been major. However, I seriously doubt if it has caused fundamental changes from a value system perspective. The tsunami may have wiped out some lives but these have been replaced with similarly diseased lives.

I refer to the disease of racism.

Anwar Ibrahim was very quick to jump in with a racist posturing by saying the chief minister of Perak must be a Malay. Sure, it is possibly a requirement in the state constitution but that is at best, an archaic document. Reliance on that document betrays desperation. In any event, the issue has now been resolved, on a despicable and wrong principle of racism. Anything which starts with the dogma of race opens up the obvious threat of racism and in the context of the Perak chief minister fiasco, it was racism which was the root cause of the problem and a racist solution was happily accepted by all.
Now we have Tengku Razaleigh, another ex-finance minister, who has waded in with another racist statement. He has urged UMNO to convene an EGM to discuss the threat of UMNO losing the right to represent Malays. It implies that currently UMNO has that right. The idea that a political party was formed to protect the right of any one race is really, despicable and totally outdated. It should be rejected in the modern society because it is now rightly seen as morally wrong.

Does Anwar not believe that a Chinese chief minister can equally protect the rights of Malays in Perak? A chief minister is tasked with managing the development and welfare of the every single person in Perak, irrespective of the race of this person. A chief minister of Perak should rule the people of Perak not as Malays, Chinese or Indians but as citizens of Malaysia residing in that state. To suggest that the chief minister must be Malay to ensure the interests of Malays are protected is to undermine the objectivity of the office of the chief minister and encourage racism. It is fundamentally wrong. It is part of the major ills of Malaysia which has plagued Malaysia for much of its history. It now has a golden opportunity to remove this ill but at the first instance, an otherwise popular and successful politician like Anwar chose instead to return to his vomit.

Similarly Razaleigh’s warning to UMNO is essentially racist in nature. It pre-supposes that only a Malay leader can protect a Malay citizen. This thinking is totally wrong and that is why the modern world has branded it outdated and unacceptable. If Malaysia seeks to be a significant contributing member of the modern international community, it must discard such archaic values which are immoral and wrong in principle. A DAP representative can and should protect the rights of a citizen of Malaysia regardless of that citizen’s race. An UMNO representative should conversely and equally protect the rights of a Chinese, as much as that of a Malay or Indian. In short, take race out of the equation. It should not matter. Malaysia, it is time to move on. Both victors and losers of the recent general election must realise to be relevant to the world, Malaysia must really change. The people have asked for change. As leaders, give the people real change. Get rid of racism now.