A prime minister for all Malaysians – OMG!

I am a Malaysian. I am, therefore, Asli, Baba, Bidayuh, Chinese, Chitti, Dayak, Iban, Indian, Kadazan-Dusun, Malay, Melanau, Portuguese-Eurasian or Sikh.

I believe in Animism, Bahaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism or Taoism or else I am an atheist or an agnostic or a freethinker.

Pardon me if I did not include your particular ethnic minority or belief system.

While ethnic group is something you are born into, like DNA, your personal set of beliefs, religious or otherwise, is something you choose to follow, if you enjoy religious freedom.

I want a prime minister who represents me in all my dazzling Malaysian variety. This PM must come from a political party that has an open door policy to Malaysians of any ethnic group or belief system.

Because I am of diverse possible origin, it follows that my PM should also be of diverse possible origin and his party should not restrict membership based on a narrow racial or religious criterion.

If the PM comes from a political party that tightly restricts membership to one racial group and/or one religious group, that PM cannot ever be right for me.

He will automatically give first priority to “his” racial and religious group and I will automatically receive the second, third or fourth priority. Whatever he protests and all his beautiful talk of “power-sharing” or of “Malaysia, Truly Asia” or “1Malaysia” count for nothing with me.

No PM can pretend to represent me when he comes from a party that restricts its membership by race and/or religion.

That is a fundamental misrepresentation. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent of the Trade Descriptions Act that one could use against politicians who try to be “all things to all people” while clearly having primary allegiance to one people.

It’s worth saying again. The PM of my country is lying if he says he can represent me, when I could never join the party that he belongs to, simply because of my ethnic group.

It’s not that I belong to the “wrong” ethnic group.

He’s just the “wrong” PM for me. It’s a fundamental mismatch.

I can only respect and believe in a prime minister who comes from a party that does not disallow membership to me, simply because I don’t “fit” their racial or religious “qualification”.

This means my PM must come from PKR, DAP, Party Socialis Malaysia or Gerakan. Of these, the two mainstream parties are PKR and DAP.

We can say that PKR and DAP are “blue ocean” entities while the communalist parties that have held sway for 57 years, are the “sunset” organisations that have outlived their usefulness and are beginning to show signs of aging and decrepitude.

They have become rigid and incapable of needed change in the new political dynamics.

* OMG! reads The Malaysian Insider.