COMMENT | Tomorrow is a public holiday. It is a day to mark the 64th year of independence. Period. The day is to get your car washed; buy groceries or go to the market; watch special programmes on TV. Nothing more.

The sloganeering, the rhetoric, the patriotism, unity and togetherness is secondary. This annual observation (read: holiday) is a front for pretenders, hypocrites and those apple-polishing politicians who believe what they say will end years of “my race is mightier than your” and “my religion rules supreme over all others”.

It is not something new.

They talk about religious tolerance but not acceptance; they talk of a nation for all but not a nation of all. They talk about unity in one breath and scream ketuanan in another.

Bangsa Malaysia remains a pipedream and anyone promoting it should be asked: “What have you been smoking?”

The divide is so deep-rooted and even without the cajoling by self-serving politicians, it continues to...