COMMENT | We witnessed a flicker of hope in 2018. But the candle burned out two years on when the racial demon rose from party ranks to tear apart what short-term reforms were achieved.

So, here we go again. Nincompoops wallowing in the racial rut, manipulating the imagined insecurities of the conservative Malay votes, and campaigning on who could shout loudest for their respective constituency.

It will be a while before progressive leadership re-emerge to reset our “first world infrastructure, third world mentality”, which the former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi attempted but fell short of.

Even as the current insular leadership manipulates the...