Aman Rais' recent piece 'Slot Wajah Sebuah Parti calar prestasi baik Pak Lah' hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that most ordinary Malaysians are less persuaded by aggressive and confrontational politics than simple, down-to-earth and honest appeals by the politicians themselves.

He is quite right to note that the Malay-Muslim electorate is not likely to be taken in by the negative propaganda that is being hurled at PAS at the moment, particularly when the Malaysian public has been fed a steady stream of anti-PAS allegations (dating back to the 1970s) which has obviously not had any effect on popular perceptions of PAS.

Though I would not go so far as to make the general claim that this applies to the 'Malays' as a whole - which as a category is surely too narrow to encompass the entirety of that nebulous thing we refer to as the 'Malay race' - one could state that the Malaysian public in general is simply jaded and worn out by the stereotypes, cliches and downright fabrications it has been force-fed for so long.

The worry however, lies in the unstated assumptions that have come to the fore of late: In the wake of the Mahathir era there has been much speculation about how the new Umno leadership will deal with the question of PAS. For both Umno and PAS are, basically, Malay-Muslim parties fighting for dominance and hegemony over the same electoral constituency. Despite their claims otherwise, neither party has demonstrated a real inclination or ability to transcend the narrow parochialism of their communalist politics (be it in the form of racial/ethnic communalism or its religious variant).

Thanks in part to this intense contestation for the same vote bank, the hostility between the two parties has grown and intensified since the 1980s, leading to outright violent confrontations and even killings, such as that which took place at Memali in 1985.

There is now much talk about how the post-Mahathir administration and political elite in Umno may want to develop a new approach to the PAS question and the challenge that the Islamist party poses. As predicted, we have already witnessed a softening of sorts in Umno's relation to PAS: The new Umno leadership, comfortable in its Islamic credentials and patrimony, feels more relaxed to deal with matters of religion and religious doctrine and is able to take on PAS on the latter's terms.

In the meantime, other groups - most notably some of the Malay-Muslim NGOs and mass movements - have begun calling for a reconciliation of sorts between Umno and PAS, for the sake of 'Malay-Muslim unity'.

Unity at what price?

But 'Malay unity', in the Malaysian context, comes at a price and incurs costs - both social and political - of its own. In the context of a multicultural, multireligious and multiracial country like this, boundaries of self and other, in-group and out-group seem to predominate in practically all major socio-political movements. (And this is certainly not confined to those of the bumiputera category, as we all know).

Half a century on, Malaysian politics remains divided along communalist lines and race remains the major vector on which the terrain of Malaysian politics and political options is demarcated. For the sake of reducing tension and instability in the country, there are many Malay-Muslim NGOs, civil society organisations, intellectuals and writers who are calling for Umno and PAS to patch up instead.

Those who counsel against confrontation and opposition (perhaps failing to note the very real ideological differences between Umno and PAS which cannot possibly be masked, much less neglected despite cosmetic attempts at reconciliation) seem to favour cooperation and the emphasis on communal loyalty and unity instead.

There are some major problems with this suggestion, and to name but a few one could note the following:

Firstly the last time PAS and Umno actually got together it was during the 1970s when PAS was under the helm of the ruthlessly ethnocentric and chauvinistic Asri Muda. Asri Muda, the 'anak watan' of Malay politics, had overturned the broad pragmatic approach of PAS's earlier leader Dr

Burhanuddin al-Helmy and turned his party into the most blatantly and shamelessly Malay-centric party in Malaysian history. It was then thought of as being even 'more Umno than Umno', and that undoubtedly helped its rehabilitation which allowed it to enter the Barisan Nasional coalition for a brief period (up to 1978 at least).

Those who care to remember this era would remember that PAS was effectively saying all the things that Umno could not - or was too embarrassed - to say. Its communitarian demands were so great and its anti-non-Malay stance so strong that PAS under Asri Muda eventually became an embarrassment for Umno and the BN as well. 'Malay unity' was indeed achieved in the 1970s, but at what price? The final cost was borne by Malaysian society as a whole, and an entire generation of young Malaysians carried the burden of communal distrust, institutionalised racism and ethnic chauvinism long into the future.

The second factor that has to be borne in mind is that all talk of 'Malay unity' has to begin by interrogating the premises upon which the project is based. One must remember that such notions have almost no logical or philosophical worth, for ethnic and communal identities are not essential categories but rather historically developed and thus contingent and relative concepts. Yet 'Malay unity' (like 'Chinese unity', 'Indian unity' or any other kind of ethnic exclusivism) requires an other to be exteriorised and made the outsider. In the Malaysian context who would these outsiders be?

'Non-Malay threat'

We should be wary of these calls for Malay unity for the simple reason that they open the way for communitarianism and ethnic exclusivism to make a comeback in the public arena. Already with the elections looming in the background we can see and hear the familiar language of the 'non-Malay threat' being echoed in the trashy tabloids and mainstream vernacular press in the country. What does this say for the prospect of a project for Malay unity today? Have we grown any wiser?

In the end, attempts to negotiate an understanding between Umno and PAS have to rest on a mature understanding of democratic politics and democratic processes. Umno and PAS have simply evolved to the point where both parties - though appealing to the same ethnic-religious constituencies - have grown too far apart. What reconciliation can there be with Umno and PAS while the leaders of the latter express support for Osama bin Laden or the Taliban? This is not merely a gulf of semantics - the ideological divide is a real one and it is growing.

Spurious talk of 'Malay unity' will not heal this division, nor will it bring the two parties closer. Worse of all, it runs the risk of alienating other racial and religious communities in the country instead, making more complicated, confusing and dangerous a political climate that has never been stable anyway. Like it or not, Malaysian politics - and Malay politics - has changed and evolved to a new register, with new ideological emphases and trajectories. The only thing that can keep these parties in check and within the bounds of public accountability are the rules of a proper democratic political culture.

Leave talk of 'Malay unity' to the past where it belongs - Malaysia will be a better and saner country when such topics are discussed by historians instead!