“Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss.”

- George Orwell

Maybe irrelevancy is conducive for rediscovering one’s cojones, but Gerakan Youth deputy chief Andy Yong’s contention that the Malays do not need their crutches any more deserves attention, more so because it comes at a time when the Umno state has demonstrated that non-Malay voices in its coalition do not matter.

However, we do have to unpack this statement. While politicians like to bandy the term “meritocracy” around as a panacea for all that ails this country, I do not think that “reconsidering” Article 153 necessarily means embracing meritocracy as a replacement to race-based policies. Furthermore, Yong uses two very different concepts - “meritocracy” and “egalitarianism” - when attempting to solve the racial component of Article 153.

Defining those concepts is beyond the scope of this piece but what is important is the fact that this late in the game, Gerakan is attempting to resuscitate old ideas that Harry Lee famously battled a long time ago. Mind you, I am no fan of the late Singaporean strongman but Article 153 has damaged the Malay community to the extent that most young Malays I talk to who either support or oppose the article are engaged in a toxic battle of identity that will eventually destroy this country.

Moreover, while it is easy to dismiss - threaten, harass and intimidate - non-Malays who question this particular article of our constitution, it is worse for Malays who oppose or argue against it. As race and religion are intimately entwined in Malay politics and identity, the idea of jettisoning one or the other, or even discussing such, is verboten to the majority of voting Malays in this country.

In addition, let us be honest, this idea of affirmative action for the majority is really constitutionally-sanctioned discrimination and racial supremacy, which is anathema to any kind of functional democracy.

However, what is unsettling is that everyone knows this, most certainly those non-Malay component parties of BN. This is why Yong, in an attempt to point out the hypocrisy of Harapan and Bersatu, also exposes the hypocrisy and mendacity of BN that the majority of Malaysians supported all these years.

When Yong claims - “That is to say even if Pakatan Harapan or Bersatu were to lead the federal government, discriminatory policies will remain under the so-called compromise of Article 153” - he is acknowledging that the system is built on discrimination and nobody, certainly not BN or the opposition, is willing to change that.

Which is why I keep saying this - “I would argue (and have) that there is not really a sense of ‘ketuanan Melayu’ in the general Malay community but rather a ‘ketuanan Umno’ that has been the dominant expression of ‘Malay’ nationalism.”

(An example of this would be the 12 percent Umno discount in my article ‘Not all Malays are created equal’ - “I know a few former and current influential Umno members and the difference between the two is that the latter are completely out of touch with the conflicting sentiments of the average Malaysian but more importantly of the average Malay.