I refer to the Malaysiakini report Malays at 'defining moment' of history .

Recently, two former Umno leaders provided headline-grabbing news regarding the fate of the Malays in a politically-changed Malaysia. One speech, given in Teluk Intan, made a singularly important point: ‘Is one a racist if one talks about Malay rights?’

The other speech, made at another rally, made a contrapuntal reply: ‘It is time Malays dis-enthrall themselves of colonial discourse’.

It is not racist to talk about Malay rights. What many find offensive is the tenor and the context in which the issue of Malay rights is used for certain political ends. To suggest that after 51 years of BN rule, and after 22 years of Mahathir's astute leadership, the Malays are still lagging behind is a terrible indictment on the government.

Anyway, that kind of talk is quite irrelevant in the face of a new kind of argument made clear by the other speaker. Also a former government minister, he exhorted the Malays to lift themselves out of ‘colonial discourse’. To start thinking not as victims, but as people who are in-charge and who can make positive changes.

The two men could not be more different. One looks to the past and sees nothing but a history of victim-hood repeated in the present-day. The other looks forward telling the Malays that they can create their own future by putting behind the victim's history forever.

The speaker in Teluk Intan insists that all Malaysians uphold the ‘social contract’. This illustrates clearly what the other speaker meant by colonial discourse. Luckily, there are enough people who understand that politicians are dependent upon catchy phrases like ‘social contract’ to enthrall their audience. Like Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, they have not allowed the wool to close their eyes.

The social contract did exist but mostly in the minds of the members of the Alliance. It was a form of tacit understanding between race-based parties. After all, without a social contract, what would Umno, MCA and MIC do for a living? They keep the rhetoric surrounding the ‘social contract’ alive so that they can keep the ‘balancing act’ going.

Which brings us back to the speech in Teluk Intan. Telling a Malaysian crowd in 2008 that citizenship was given for ‘Malay rights’ and labeling non-Malays as pendatang misses the point. Most Malaysians are now under 50 years old, which means that the majority of us were born well after independence.

Pendatang now refers to illegal workers from Indonesia, and in the case of Sabah, the Philippines. Can a Malaysian today honestly consider nasi kandar or the ubiquitous roti canai pendatang food? For that is what is meant if one accepts colonial discourse. A Malaysian Chinese will forever be a pendatang because, in 1957, his great-grandfather accepted Malaysian citizenship.

Yes, a sizeable proportion of Malays are still not satisfied with their economic achievements. They may make the crowd in Teluk Intan. But as the speaker himself once told the Malays, ‘be grateful. Before the BN, during British times, you were even more economically backward’. Here is colonial discourse at work, this time to the benefit of the speaker when he was in power.

It is therefore refreshing to see a Malaysian leader saying the exact opposite. If Malays are to really rise up economically, they need to stop looking backward to a time when they were ill- treated by the ‘evil’ British and their non-Malay cronies. Incidentally, the British also had a lot of help from the Malay aristocracy and some very clever Arab and Indian Muslims.

So if, the other speaker is right, the Malays are on the brink of change. This change of mindset might help lift Malaysia above narrow race politics. If that is case, then all Malaysians are on the brink of change for the Malays set the tenor for the rest of us.

Speeches like the one in Teluk Intan is akin to a flypaper holding down our collective will to progress. It is time we truly learn from the past and stop allowing politicians to pull the wool over our eyes.