First, we need to stop defining ourselves as the “victim”. Victimhood allows us to focus exclusively on the injustices and marginalisation suffered by us and our communities and agitate that the government acts quickly to resolve these to our satisfaction.

– PSM leader Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj

COMMENT | In a piece titled, “Don’t fumble this second chance! Consolidate the reform process”, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj offers a sobering view of the way forward, paying particular attention to the majority polity in this country and offering possible solutions to the current regime in how to increase their vote share amongst the dominant polity that Pakatan Harapan/BN woefully lack.

Beyond the unfair voter weightage and gerrymandering, what we are dealing with here is a vicious cycle in which the dominant Malay community has been emotionally blackmailed over the decades by various racial and religious propaganda that only a Malay government can look after their interests.

While the Malay governments charged with doing so have built an elaborate system of corruption that disenfranchises and marginalises the Malay community.

Fixing electoral legerdemain is one thing but cultivating a healthy Malay base is another. The reality is that there will never be a stable reformasi government without a healthy Malay base. In order to do this, the racial discourse needs to change when it comes to Harapan.

A couple of points need to be made. Firstly, we should not harp on terms like moral high ground and principles, especially when it comes to non-Malay politics.

Some folks find it easy to blame the old maverick for everything that went wrong when Harapan was in brief power the first time around. However, the reality was that non-Malay power structures were complicit in the way how Harapan spectacularly imploded...