Farish A Noor's piece titled 'Umno, PAS grown too far apart for 'Malay unity'' is very timely I gather.

I believe the issue of unity is being wrongly and dangerously seen from the point of view of political parties. 'Malay unity' means that Umno and PAS must merge. 'Chinese unity' means MCA, Gerakan and DAP must merge. 'Indian unity' means MIC, IPF and PPP must merge (with M Kayveas and MG Pandithan out of the way so S Samy Vellu can reign supreme)

This is not the right way of going about achieving unity and may damage our multi-party democracy in the long run. As history has shown, even if all these parties merge to result in a mammoth umbrella party called 'Barisan Malaysia Boleh' to replace Barisan Nasional, the unity problem among the races and within the races will not go away.

The crux is that politicians in this part of the world do not know how to deal with opposition parties, and opposition parties do not know how to deal with those holding power. There is much ugliness. Worst still, the crucifixion of opposition politicians under dubious charges and draconian laws is common.

Within the parties there is also the problem of long-time leaders refusing to give way to others. In Umno's case, look at what happened to former deputy premiers Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Anwar Ibrahim. In MIC's case look at what happened to Pandithan.

Therefore the future depends on the political players reaching a required 'mental maturity'. To be fair, this is a problem endemic in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For all the animosity during election time and parliamentary session in UK and US, the ugliness does not spill over to day-to-day affairs. Civility is still the order of the day. In fact, in the UK, the opposition is called 'Her Majesty's Opposition', enshrined in their legal and moral way of doing things.

Why can't we behave the same way? After all we pride ourselves on 'Malaysia Boleh' until some of us are sick of it. The talk about PAS-Umno unity is not necessary or warranted. Both parties will just have to play their role as allowed under the constitution in a civilised and adult manner. There should be no need to call someone else 'barua' (stooge). There is no need to use government machinery to castigate opposition parties.

Even if all these parties are to merge, at some point someone is going to get fed up with waiting and will break away and form another party. Therefore what we must do is to establish a framework in which different ideas and ways can be debated without personal grudges and smear campaigns.

I hope the next election will be conducted in a manner befitting the kind of country that we pride ourselves to be. To the elders who preach about youth misbehaving, it is your turn now to show the youth proper behavior and so on.