RECENT events have made national unity front page news again. I say again because this is an issue that never went away. It has been fading in and out of public focus for the 50 years of our country s existence.

Since Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's criticism of the blistering speeches by Umno hotheads, the national media has taken on national unity as a crusade dedicating a lot of column inches to this one issue. That s well and good; but have we not seen it all before? Is this another knee jerk reaction with no sustained efforts at really resolving the problem. We talk around the issue of national unity without getting down to the real reasons why despite nearly 50 years of independence we are still disunited. More worryingly we are even more disunited today than we were in 1957.

Chastising the hotheads for making public speeches which rouse racial tension is not the same as dissociating oneself from the sentiments expressed. The Umno leadership has not ordered the offenders to recant but only cautioned them not to voice their sentiments publicly. This implies that such sentiments are acceptable but that they should have been vented behind closed doors. Indeed the Umno Youth president played a significant part in raising the mercury. What exactly is Umno's stand on national unity? On numerous occasions Umno leaders have called its members to stand up for race, religion and country in that order. This smacks of racial and religious chauvinism. In other words, race and religion come before country. We should not be surprised by this. This is the nature of racial politics. Be it Umno, MCA or MIC, the raison d'etre of such parties is the promotion and protection of the narrow interests of their respective races. It is ironic that while the government calls for national unity the senior partners in government champion the competing, and often conflicting, interests of their respective communities.

Racial politics is one reason why we are still not united. Calls for national unity ring hollow when those calling for unity put their communal interests above national ones.

Racial political parties served their purpose prior to and in the early years after Merdeka. However in the present context racial political parties are anachronisms. They are in fact an impediment to national unity. How can the government promote national unity when its senior partners are communal. It's akin to an inveterate smoker telling us to quit smoking while at the same time promoting cigarettes.

Compartmentalisation

It is time to disband racial parties and move forward. But this is easier said than done - Umno, MCA and MIC are captives of their own racial politics. Still, it can be done if their leaders are willing to look beyond their short-term vested interests.

The other reason for our disunity is the compartmentalisation of our citizens into bumiputeras and non -bumiputeras. Bumiputraism is a coinage of 1970 when the NEP was formulated. The Constitution of 1957 never talked about bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras. How can we unite the people when we divide our citizens into two categories. This creates a them-and-us situation with all the negative consequences of separateness.

Citizenship once conferred, entitles a person to the same rights and obligations as other citizens. There should be no distinction between citizens. Indigenousness does not come into the reckoning. If it did, all immigrant races would forever be disadvantaged. And to rub salt into the wound, immigrants who fit the definition of bumiputera are conferred special status while those born here are left out. Enlightened bumiputeras are now beginning to question the fairness, and the efficacy of such a policy.

Chandra Muzaffar argues that Islam does not recognise special privileges based on indigenousness: What these groups fail to realise is that even from the point of view of Islamic political thought, any attempt to see the constitutional provisions of the Malays as rights that inhere in Malays because they are indigenous would be wrong. The cornerstone of Islamic political thought, its concept of sovereignty which resides with God and God alone, excludes the right of any group to arrogate to itself the exclusive ownership of any land or country. At the same time it does not recognise any distinction between indigenous and non-indigenous in relation to rights and responsibilities to the community since mankind is of one single nation. (Sura Baqara:213 and Sura Hujurat:13. - The NEP: Development and Alternative Consciousness -1989 Chandra Muzzafar).

Muzzafar s argument is particularly pertinent in view of Abdullah's Islam Hadari or enlightened Islam. Surely enlightened Muslims do not subscribe to racial discrimination?

Usman Awang (the late national laureate) put it eloquently in his poem Sahabat ku which he dedicated to his friend Dr MK Rajakumar.

Dear Friend
The one free nation we imagined
Remains a distant truth
My anger becomes bitterness when we are forced apart,
The distance ever wider
Now that I am proclaimed a bumiputra
And you are not.

Eating together

Bumiputraism sprouted affirmative action polices which were race based, rather than affirmative action which should have been needs based. In the 36 years of the NEP, such race-based policies have alienated a large section of the population who although deserving of, and needing help, have missed out. Unless we remove the perception of first and second class citizenship we are not going to resolve the issue of national unity.

There was a time when race was not an issue, today race insinuates itself into the minutiae of our everyday life. The pre 1970 generation will probably remember eating together in coffee shops with their Malay friends. Neither race nor religion was a problem then. Today the races do not mix especially between the Malays and the others.

One has to question the government s commitment to national unity when on the one hand it promotes vision schools where children are encouraged to mix, while on the other it builds single race schools, where students do not mix with children of other races. How does the government reconcile the two? Our uniformed and civil services are virtually mono-ethnic, how then do we encourage inter racial mixing in the work place if the government itself does not set the example. How can government serve a multi racial population adequately with a mono-ethnic workforce which is often not sensitive to other cultures? National unity is best served by letting the different races mix - in our schools, universities and work place - yet government policies do not always facilitate this.

While Abdullah's claim that he is a prime minister for all Malaysians, is comforting, it has yet to translate into unambiguous policies which transcend race. It is not a lack of good intentions but a lack of courage and conviction that separates a great leader from a mediocre one. One is prepared to stake his political future on his beliefs while the other will not. The only Malaysian leader who truly believed in a united Malaya and had the courage of his convictions was Onn Jaffar. For his troubles he was branded a traitor by his own people. Perhaps Onn Jaffar was ahead of his time, but fifty years on circumstances have changed. Malaysians are tired of racial politics. Tired of the minority racial chauvinists spoiling it for the rest. There is a huge reservoir of goodwill amongst the different races, it is for those in power to tap it for the good of the country and not to divide and rule for their vested interests. Abdullah must be prepared to take political risks if he is serious about national unity otherwise his words are just empty rhetoric.

Racial politics and bumiputraism are by no means the only reasons for the racial polarisation in our country, but they are the main culprits. Both are exclusive when national unity requires us to be inclusive. If the prime minister does not want a semblance of unity (which he says he does not), but a genuine one, he must be prepared to grasp the nettle. Not to would be to let the issue fester, with far worse consequences further down the road. Talking around the issue cuts no ice. Malaysians are tired of hearing that the government will deal with racial issues the BN way - within the ruling caucus, behind closed doors. We are asked to trust a system which has not delivered national unity (racial calm or a semblance of unity, yes) despite 50 years in power.

By Abdullah's own assessment, race relations Malaysia is presently very fragile. This is all the more reason why he cannot sweep racial issues under the carpet any more but deal with them courageously, openly and honestly. In street parlance, Abdullah must walk the talk! But Umno is not alone in this, MCA and MIC must bear equal responsibility. Malaysians have to face these core issues squarely, if we want to solve this racial conundrum.

YIN EE KIONG is a former teacher, warehouseman, labourer and car assembly plant worker. He is presently unemployed.