It is not easy to stay still when you see the integrity of your nation ripped apart by people who were elected to uphold that integrity. Here we are with the same old story of racial slurs and religious bigots. This seems like a pretty long chapter in the Malaysian book and is not showing any sign of ending.

The systematic marginalisation of an ethnic group, and now the issue of the study of the 30% equity target - these are all issues that any developing nation would face at some point, and thus should be discussed bona fide, out in the open and with the sole intention of reaching a common ground. Instead, we see the leaders of our country, those who were elected to uphold the spirit of the constitution, tearing everything apart by introducing ethnic and religious sentiments to the debate.

This silly fight is an old political language - the same language that was once used during the warring tribes of yesteryears, pitching one against the other, spreading institutionalised hatred. We are in the 21st century! An era where values and not skin colour defines you and your society. What is happening is not acceptable in a developing country with a driverless monorail and impressive skyscrapers.

The political landscape of a majority of countries are coloured by political parties that represent a certain value or ideology. We find the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, the Unionist Party, the Green Party, the Socialist Party. It is in this system that citizens are able to systematically flock to what they truly believe in and work within that framework for the greater good. Thus, their debates in Parliament are progressive in nature and focus on issues that matter for the country.

Malaysia is quite different because it still succumbs to the old mentality of the warring tribes and clans. I still remember when I was in the Dewan Rakyat to witness the tabling of the 9th Malaysia Plan a few months ago. It was drastically different from the parliamentary sessions of other countries. It was as if I was watching a wrestling match of some sort. Every single time there was an issue that involved bumiputera rights, there was a thunder of table-banging, signalling support. When a few did not comply or objected, there were criticism thrown all over the room.

We have Umno, MCA and MIC. Yes, we do have value-based parties like Gerakan, DAP, PAS but because the de facto political landscape is overwhelmingly ethnic, citizens tend to naturally flock to where their ethnic group belongs. Thus PAS, for all their hype, is still Malay. DAP and Gerakan, for all their effort, are still predominantly Chinese. Strange isn't it? But not when the structure of the political system is designed to be ethnically based.

Now let's go back to our Constitution to see where we went wrong. Let's really go back and imagine ourselves in the shoes of our forefathers. This is at the time prior to Merdeka when the Malays successfully managed to force the British to abandon the idea of the Malayan Union and to establish the Federation of Malaya.

Why a federation? Because the Malays want to preserve their traditional power structure - the sultanates - and thus their control of the Malay Peninsula. This is in itself a compelling sign that they want to preserve their rule viz. the British. Focus on this moment. What we have here are a people defending their land from alien rule.

Now let's fast forward a little bit. Same context as before. The Reid Commission and the Constitution. The Chinese and Indian workers being de facto residents of Malaya need to be made citizens. How then can a Constitution reflect both these contexts? We have the Malays defending their land, and Chinese and Indians who need to be citizens. What can we do? Thus, the Merdeka Contract was born - Malays retain control of their land and special privileges attached to it, while the Chinese and Indians get their citizenship. Done deal.

News splashed all over the Peninsula of the glad tidings. Merdeka! This was a particular moment of glee and people momentarily forgot the Merdeka contract and celebrated the event as one nation, one people. I can only recall one person who, in the midst of this excitement, reminded people about the spirit of the Constitution. That was Tan Siew Sin, who reminded the people of the Merdeka contract and expressed his hope that future leaders would not hijack the Constitution and aggravate inter-ethnic relations.

And indeed this has happened. The fear of our Merdeka founding fathers has indeed come true. Today the leaders of our nation are debating the Constitution out of its original context. What does this mean? To really understand this, let's take a retrospective peek one more time. The original context was Malays defending the land from alien rule. That's fair. The Chinese and Indians are to be citizens of Malaya. That's fair too. What is missing here?

The alien rule! There is nothing to defend against anymore. The nature of defence was against a colonial ruling empire which imposed a patronage system on its subjects that effectively created a perfectly dual society; one of the rulers, and one of the ruled, namely the Malays, Chinese and Indians. Since the patronage system was overwhelmingly powerful, it slowly took away all the powers of the existing Malay Sultanates. It was precisely against this oppressive and patronising colonial system, that the Malays started to be defensive, asserting the right to rule their own land.

The existence of Chinese and Indians as citizens of Malaya, people who were equally oppressed under the British, who equally suffered under the Japanese, is a completely different thing. They were not invaders. They were just people who wanted a place to live, a place to call home, a place to belong to after being displaced from their homeland to be migrant workers for the British.

The Merdeka founder fathers perfectly understood that and thus they made sure that the political system that was about to be created would embody this understanding. It was precisely in this spirit and conviction, that the Alliance was born. Unfortunately, throughout the years, this alliance - now embodied in Barisan Nasional - has lost the essence of their original understanding. You can see this vividly in BN. They do not even know why they are sitting together anymore.

Our leaders, who are supposed to be the guardians of that understanding, are failing us. Such is the Malaysian dilemma. If we are to start somewhere, let us start with revisiting this lost understanding.