Time to end race-based political parties and politics from Malaysia

UMNO is a  racist party, so says Mahathir the founder of UMNO Baru, and he is right...

When prodded for a response at a function this afternoon, Mahathir, who is still an Umno member, fired: "I must be a racist if Nazri says I am racist. Don't ever say that I am not. He knows everything. He belongs to a party which is racist... which is Umno."

"Umno is a party perkauman and is meant only for Malays and nobody (else) can join. So he (Nazri) is in a racist party but says he is against racism. So he should resign from the party," he added. - Malaysiakini, 8/12/2009, You belong to a racist party: Dr M to Nazri

Likewise, the same goes for MCA and MIC ....and many other political parties in Malaysia.

Barisan Nasional is also not a Malaysian partnership of political parties, as clearly the main leadership is obviously just one political party, UMNO...

BN Chairman - UMNO - Datuk Seri Najib Razak
BN No. 2 - UMNO - Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
BN secretary-general - UMNO -  Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor

But, wait what about the Malaysian opposition parties..

PKR - a multiracial party, it claims, but really is it truly multiracial or just a one-race dominated political party?

DAP...again a multiracial party but then....

PAS - clearly a one religious based party - but then it has a new structure that allows for participation of non-Muslim...'supporters club'?

After over 52 years of independence, one wonders whether there really must be a change in the image of Malaysian political parties..

Maybe the time has come to open up all political parties to all persons in Malaysia...

And whoever wins elections must always be seen to be acting for all Malaysians...not just a particular race/ethnic or religious groups...

Sometimes, even parties that are indeed multi-racial find that Malaysians do not join these parties and make it really multiracial, and hence they end up being dominated by a single ethnic group (or some ethnic groups but not all).

The British colonial divide and rule policy, which was propagated by the UMNO-led Alliance, and the Barisan Nasional still affects Malaysians today... and we still see fellow Malaysians as persons from this ethnic group or that religion.

Najib is talking again about a 1Malaysia concept - and maybe we will move away from being a nation distinguished by the elasticities of our forefathers, and become just one nation made up of one people - Malaysians.

1st step is to remove 'ethnicity' or 'race' or religion from all government forms and documents, and whenever we see the word, bangsa, we can all write 'Malaysian'.