I wish to refer to the comments by KJ John on a single BN party in his Malaysiakini column Heart of the matter. The proposal by Gerakan and the points put up by KJ John sounded very good.

I agree with them on the logic of having a single party to do away with racial party. We all agreed that racial relationship in Malaysia is worse now as compared to 50 years ago.

However, there is only one fundamental flaw in this proposal. If all BN component parties merge into one, this means election at all levels will be open to all. Every member irrespective of race will be entitled to one vote. Sound good? Except that the majority of the members will consists of Malay only.

This means nominations for councillors at municipal levels, candidates for state and parliament will be decided by predominantly or all Malay committees at all levels. We will then see no more or the very few non-Malays nominated at the pleasure of the Malay-dominated committees for councillorship, state excos and cabinets.

The irony is that the existing BN tradition of quotas protects the other non-Malay seats. Gerakan's proposal can only work if all Malaysians do not identify themselves to their races? Is it possible?

The writer is state assemblyman for Subang Jaya.