Even though I am Malay, I find Umno's racial stance of 'Me-Tarzan-you-Jane' vis--vis the other races, at their general assembly last week, a tad puckish, if not a tad 'pukish'. It appears to me that it is themselves that they are trying hard to convince.

That the Malaysian political leadership is in the hands of the Malays is a given and accepted fact. So that is not the issue. It is whether Umno has exercised responsible and visionary leadership for the country, that is the matter being questioned. And that is the right of all of us, irrespective of race.

Umno and Malays are not synonymous. Ask the millions of Malays like me who voted for the opposition. So please do not equate the two, and stop behaving as if you have to defend the honour of the race when Malaysians have in the past expressed dismay at the shocking behaviour of their black sheep in government.

Why is the sense of outrage at the selfish behaviour of our elected representatives very muted among the Malays? Apart from feudalistic tendencies, it seems to me that the Malays see the trees and ignore the woods. We have been led to fear a bigger picture of us being overrun by others if we attack our own kind.

Umno latches on to this and thus their general assembly in these troubled times started off as a racial 'Rah! Rah!' to hide their indefensible screw-ups. How convenient.

On the other hand, most of my non-Malay friends see the woods and not the trees. Their letters here in malaysiakini reflect this. So much dissatisfaction with so many things, and yet when elections come, the BN wins with their help.

In the 1999 general elections, the Malays actually shifted allegiance but the BN still won on the back of non-Malay votes in crucial mixed constituencies. If one chooses to limit one's own political freedom by condemning oneself to a 'choice between two evils', then, please, forever hold your peace.

Even my own progressive Malay friends allege that there is an inert agenda in non-Malay voting behaviour. It is the avoidance of trouble; so that you can make hay while the sun shines, in line with your alleged transitory inclinations.

Hence the general assembly began with the issuing of veiled threats of the Malay amok tendency, to keep you in line. How mischievous.

Let's stop all these nonsense. We are all Malaysians in the same boat. And now we do have a choice. It is between communal politics and multiracial politics; within a framework of political realities.

Make our choice known in the next general elections; that Malaysians have finally shed their feudalistic and transitory skin. We need to engage the world together and not be held to ransom by small-town nobility and the fighting over miserly pieces of a shrinking and plundered pie.

I hope that the circus in town last week has brought this home to all of us.