I refer to the Malaysiakini report Policy in place, next stop Putrajaya .

There are many things we can say about the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Platform, but I would like to focus on one thing - there is a new confidence to embrace one another as Malaysians.

This was symbolised by the breaking away from the bovernment-imposed taboo of speaking about race and religion. Not only was the so-called racial superiority quashed, but socio- economic and political equality were affirmed in the common policy document. The issue of race and religion was discussed without fear.

There was an openness in the atmosphere so unlike anything we knew before. People of all races, including Malaysians from Sabah and Sarawak, sat and stood side-by-side listening to leaders thundering about the need for inclusiveness and condemning racism in our country.

We grew up in a country where race and religion are deemed ‘live wires’, issues which are too fatal to even go near. You cannot discuss them in school, in university or in Parliament, not on the five-foot ways, not on TV, not in the press, not in writing, not through cartoons, not in forums.

The Umno-Barisan Nasional government tells us these topics are ‘too sensitive’. If you ever have the guts to talk about it, the Malays will suddenly pick up ‘parangs’ and chase after the non- Malays. We grew up with the May 13 ‘bogeyman tale’.

But we all knew deep in our bones that something is terribly wrong with the way things are. Now and then, some of us recall the good old days when our Malay neighbours were friendly or when our Chinese neighbours were helpful and our Indian neighbours were kind. Now and then, we remembered not too long ago, Malaysians were nice people who know how to laugh at the world and at themselves, the P Ramlee way.

We know the caricatures of Ah Chong and Ramasamy somehow did not fit into our experience with the grandpa-like Ah Pek in the neighbourhood sundry shop or the motherly Indian lady who taught us Bahasa Malaysia at school. We knew deep inside us that something is very wrong with the way our government tried to scare us into toeing the line using the May 13 bogeyman tale.

The irony is, all of us knew that something is wrong but we could discuss it. A greater irony is to see how racial category matters in Malaysia. In your National Registration Department identity card, you are either a bumiputera or a non-bumiputera. In business, being poor or rich is not enough - you are either a bumiputera or a non-bumiputera.

In education, being a good or bad student is not enough - you are either a bumiputera or a non- bumiputera. Even in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, you are either (Malay) Umno, (Chinese) MCA or (Indian) MIC and all other agendas seemed to be footnotes. But, of course, we cannot discuss race and religion. Because the government tells us that the Malays will pick up their ‘parang’ and chase after the non-Malays.

When Pakatan Rakyat created history by wrestling five states from Umno-BN and denying them a two-thirds majority in Parliament on March 8, 2008, many feared that Umno-BN's bogeyman will come after us. SMS-es were sent frantically to instruct friends and family members to stay at home.

Leaders issued calls for supporters to celebrate quietly and disallowed victory parades. Many folks began to sweat thinking maybe Umno-BN was right after all and that the Malays would pick up their ‘parang’ and chase after the non-Malays.

It has been more than a year since March 8 and we all know the bogeyman did not turn up that night or the nights after that. Yes, there were some who tried to fan the sentiment and invoke the bogeyman in many different ways - hate posters, noisy demonstrations and even a bloody severed cow head - but the bogeyman did not turn up.

Someone said true national unity and racial harmony cannot happen in this country - Onn Jaafar tried for it, he failed and many tried for it, they too failed. It was a different era, when Umno-BN could still use the old British weapon of race and religion to rule. Today, even Britain's Prince Charles said he will have a multi-faith ceremony in for his future coronation.

Slowly and with trembling hands and knees, Malaysians since March 8 or even probably somewhere before that date, were treading into a new world. It is a world of new openness, new accountability and new democratic space unbeknown previously.

And of course, back to where we began, there is a new confidence to embrace each other. This new confidence may develop in different pace in different parts of the country. There will be some people who still insist of going back to the old world, the era of the bogeyman.

But the Pakatan Rakyat convention and its Common Policy Platform are like the election of Barrack Obama, a country owning up to the terrible wrongs of its past, the wrongs we know deep in our bones, and then swept aside by the tide of progress.

Which is why the March 8, political ‘tsunami’ was not our goal - do not ever mistake March 8 as a ‘we have arrived’. Some did and felt disappointed when Pakatan Rakyat could not do much after a year.

March 8 was the beginning of the new world and if it's new, there is much work to be done to build it up further. The Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Platform is then the blueprint of our new world, one in which the bogeyman has no place.