COMMENT | The Malay Dignity Congress shows how certain zealots are trapped in a time warp, spouting an uncompromising stance on Malay entitlements, and spieling a notional ‘social contract’ that non-Malays are bound to if they wish to continue living in Tanah Melayu.

What the hardliners failed to address is whether preferential treatment, wielded as a racial tool for decades by Umno, and now by Pakatan, have disempowered rather than enabled the Malay communities, and indirectly demeaned the determination, the academic and commercial achievements of Malays in general.

Where special interest groups are emboldened to spew their threats at a racially exclusive assembly with impunity, all is certainly not well on the 'satu negara, satu matlamat' (one nation, one goal) front.

Politicians, though, know what makes their base tick. This includes the Pakatan Harapan (PH) leadership that brought on a shimmer of hope that our Malaysian story would now take on a progressive trajectory. The Shah Alam circus of platitudes shows what a pipedream that was...