'Pasir Mas member of Parliament Ahmad Fadhil Shaari, who presented on the religion cluster, urged Putrajaya to ensure that all top government positions to be held only by the Malays. “This includes positions such as chief justice, attorney-general, chief secretary, inspector-general of police, chief of defence forces and other strategic positions such as the prime minister, deputy prime minister, chief ministers and menteri besar, finance minister, defence minister and education minister".– at the Malay Dignity Congress, Kuala Lumpur, 2019

COMMENT | A sneak peek into the former attorney-general's soon to be released memoir reveals a tantalising tidbit of how the old maverick attempted to pressure him to resign because of “Malay opposition”. Of course, like everyone else, I wonder why the Pakatan Harapan political elite would nominate a non-Malay and then be “surprised” by the reaction from the “Malay community”.

You see, the old maverick is always cultivating such tensions. Thomas should resign because he was a target of Malay opposition. Lim Guan Eng wanted to resign to ease tensions. Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim is not a suitable candidate for the prime minister's post because the Malays reject him for being a liberal.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as reported in Berita Harian: “Anwar keluar-keluar (Umno), dia buat parti liberal. Dia nak dapat sokongan daripada DAP, maka dia ajak DAP masuk, PAS masuk. Falsafah dia liberal". The former Harapan prime minister added that this was why the majority of Malays rejected Anwar and why he (Mahathir) was needed to court the Malay vote.

Why don’t we just legislate this issue? Why doesn’t the Malay establishment work with their willing non-Malay counterparts and draft up legislation that non-Malays and Malay liberals cannot hold positions of power and influence in the government because this would cause distress to the Malay community?

Why not draw up legislation which would give legal validity to all those fears and grievances of the Malay community when it comes to non-Malay/liberal Malay leadership in this country? After all, non-Malay political operatives and Malay liberals are always warned not to spook the Malays or not trespass into territories that are supposedly exclusive “Malay”. For years we were fed the narrative that the government was supposed to be a bastion of Malay leadership and privilege.

Or how about this - why not ...