COMMENT | There has long been a sense of disillusionment with the present race-based party system in Malaysia. However, when proposals are put forward to change the system, critics, especially armchair critics and dogmatists, quickly knock down those ideas as being undoable.

Among the major political parties, both DAP and PKR were founded with the principle of being multi-racial.

However, both experiments have not been successful as public perception sees their leadership and membership as essentially following the dynamics and mould of the traditional racial parties.

Many members of the public have just given up on the idea of a genuine grassroots-based multiracial party with membership, leadership, and agenda that are fully representative of the nation’s diverse racial stakeholders.

Thus, they feel they have to live with the reality of the status quo in Malaysian politics, leaving the country stuck with the toxic mix of race-based identity politics.

This failure to...