WE now have Khairy Jamaluddin as the Barisan Nasional (BN)-Umno candidate for Sungai Buloh. Very few will dispute his competency.

Nevertheless, is he the right candidate at this time?

He is a bright light within Umno and no one is surprised he wants to be prime minister one day.

However, despite being an Oxford graduate, he has shown very little leadership within his party.

He is at best a conformist and not a reformer. We will only get what we have received from BN all these years.

Khairy has been conditioned by Umno politics, so for him race and money politics are at best a necessary evil. He is wealthy by all accounts and this should not surprise anyone.

The same can be said for many within BN. Khairy was referred to as the powerful figure, while his father-in-law was the prime minister.

Khairy owes who he has become to his connections. This is the one opportunity for him to speak out and to claim a position for himself.

The shifting sands calls for him to seize the opportunity and chart a new pathway for Barisan Nasional. He has to become a grassroots leader if he is to earn the respect of all Malaysian.

He could be the one who enlivens the vision of Umno founder Onn Ja’afar. He could either convert Umno into a United Malaysian National Organisation fold in Barisan Nasional, as one united party not based on race.

If there are no visionaries within BN, it will not be able to gauge the shifting popular opinion. The fact is that PKR is a multiracial party, as is DAP.

The other parties in Pakatan Harapan (PH) all subscribe to non-racial politics.

If BN has any long-term future, it will lie in how the coalition reinvents itself.

The days of ethnic politics are over. Everyone knows how corrosive and divisive this has been.

Look at Umno, Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA), and their coalition partners. They tell a story of serious Malay fragmentation.

They cannot unite and yet they want to lead a multi-ethnic plural society.

This has discredited BN and many Malaysians have been disappointed by the way our society continues to be racially polarised.

Malaysians do not feel equal and are not respected as equals. PAS will be there as a small and insignificant party that will champion religious issues.

It will never ever be in a position to form a government, similarly several mosquito parties within BN, PN and GTA.

The doyen of BN, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, now leads another racist party. His divide and rule ethic has spread universal fragmentation.

I hope that this time round he also loses in Langkawi. We trusted him a second time and he betrayed us.

We may have misgivings about our representatives but vote for parties that champion multi-ethnic representation and respects diversity.

We live at a time when Rishi Sunak is the Prime Minister of the UK, Kamala Harris the Vice President of USA, Penny Wong is the Foreign Minister of Australia and Halimah Yacob the President of Singapore.

Islam is a diamond in the hearts and minds of Muslims everywhere and there is a need to show the world that racism is counter intuitive to Islam, just as tribalism is wrecking Pakistan, Afghanistan and some parts of the Middle East.

The statement by a Muslim leader that he witnessed Islam in Japan and saw Muslims in Indonesia is very apt.

We have an opportunity in Malaysia to reflect this non-racial inclusive dimension so critically needed in the world.

We need political parties that champion issues that uplift the well-being of people. The focus on personalities, race, religion, language and colour divides us and we suffer the consequences.

We cannot continue to be political fodder used to satisfy the greed, selfishness and personal ambitions of politicians.

Six decades on and no one in BN, PN or GTA have given us confidence that the future will be different. We speak from very painful experience.

Khairy may have dreams of becoming prime minister, but he can do so only on multi-ethnic turf, where it is just socio-economic challenges that all Malaysians face.

Khairy has to change. He has the mind, the education and age on his side but the challenge is whether he has the capacity to become a reformist with a vision for an inclusive, participative and democratic BN.

I hope his loss in Sungai Buloh will teach him to look inside and fashion his party anew.

Therefore, my call in Sungai Buloh is to vote for a multi-ethnic party. By not voting for Khairy, he will be in a position to reflect.

I do not trust Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Muhyiddin Yassin nor Mahathir. They have all had their chances and failed badly. They are conditioned to act as they have done.

We need to send the message that Malaysians want a different future.

It will not be delivered by manifestos, but by ‘kita boleh’ for we ultimately can make the difference when we act wisely. – November 12, 2022.

* K. Haridas reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.