Amanah vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa has admitted that the presence of Bersatu in Pakatan Harapan has jolted his party, the DAP and PKR into a new reality which includes having to deal with the Malay psyche that is "a la Umno".
Following the seat division exercise, he realised that Harapan's reformasi agenda has to reconcile with the existence of the Umno-minded Malays in Bersatu.
"Our (Amanah, DAP and PKR) efforts to have more progressive Malays who are more inclusive have been held back by the division of seats which was based on Bersatu versus Umno and others versus all the other BN component parties," Mujahid said in a statement.
He said in practical terms, this may not be a disadvantage to the reformasi movement and Bersatu must accept the fact that its political struggle should be based on a Malaysia without racism.
"This means that Bersatu should not only to defeat the party but also replace the Malay psyche a la Umno to one that is progressive and inclusive," said the Parit Buntar MP.
"This must be made clear to Bersatu in our effort to build a new political future for Malaysia. Just obtaining the most seats against Umno will not help a new Malaysia that is being fought for by Anwar Ibrahim (photo) and the reformasi movement."
Mujahid said it is pointless to replace Umno only to retain Umno's racist indoctrination without a necessary reform of the Malay community.
"The Malays must come out of their trapped mentality to embrace healthy competition and have confidence in a Malaysia without racism".
Mujahid was referring to the announcement at Harapan's convention yesterday where Bersatu is set to contest the lion's share of seats in Peninsular Malaysia at the comingt general election.
Bersatu will contest 52 out of the 165 parliamentary seats in West Malaysia, followed by PKR, which is allocated 51 seats, DAP at 35 seats and Amanah at 27 seats.
Meanwhile, Penang Amanah Youth information chief Mohd Faruk Abdul Rahman said the party dis not mind the fewer seats to contest as it wanted to see unity between the opposition parties.
Farouk said defeating Umno was most important at this juncture and party members should not squabble over seats.
"Sometimes we have to sacrifice in order to save the country; our success is not achieved by the number of seats we contest but by our solidarity and unity," he said in a statement.
"We have a long way to go and Amanah's journey has just begun; perhaps we do not see the party leading the country at this point of time but the seeds we plant now and the efforts we make will go a long way towards building the country for the future," he added.
