I watch with amusement at the amount of confused thinking about the concept of Malay Unity. What unity are we talking? Are all the Malays so uniform in thoughts and actions that there is no alternative? Are they all clones of one being?

The power of such emotional terms is so great that even a clear-thinking intellectuals have not questioned this concept. This is a term that politicians like to use so that they can gather support for their party. When they claim that the Malays are disunited, what they are saying is that they cannot control the Malays by their slogans anymore. The truth is that in any issue, there are two or more opinions and what some politicians want is that everyone endorses their opinion. If this is not forthcoming, then they raise the issue of disunity basically to scare the Malays that they will lose their special rights if they continue to differ.

The fact that this has not scared the Malays is a healthy sign that the New Malay is self-assured and independent in his thinking. He is beginning to look at issues more pragmatically and willing to face challenges rather than seek the protection of special rights. This is basically endorsing the policy of meritocracy.

It is mathematically impossible for a majority race to have special rights. If you divide up Malaysia equally and give the pieces to all the Malays, you will still have a problem in land division in the next generation because there is no more land to give to their offspring. No matter how much you may argue about special rights, there is no more land to divide. So it is better to be pragmatic about the entire matter.

The problem the Malays are facing is that they are expecting special rights when there are no more to be distributed. In a state of frustration, they talk about cronyism, etc. Sure this is a problem but this is always a problem no matter who is in power. Can you imagine Anwar saying "Thank you for supporting me. Now that I am in power, sorry, I am unable to help those of you who supported me because I do not practice cronyism"?

Cronyism is a disease of politics and power worldwide, even in the United States. If you are giving special rights away, are not your children and good friends who are Malays also deserving cases? If you give to a friend, it is cronyism. So you give to strangers and penalise your friend and relatives? Is that the issue everyone has been fighting over? The problem is endemic in the issue of special rights. If the Malays want special rights, then they must accept cronyism. The logic is very clear here.