According to the most recent poll by the Merdeka Center, the racial divide between Malays and non-Malays is wider and widening with more Malays backing Umno and Najib Razak on one side and more Chinese and Indians backing Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat on the other.

The poll, based on 1,002 people, showed that 39.3 percent supported Anwar and 33.8 per cent backed Najib.

While about 40 percent of those polled supported Anwar, the remaining 60 percent were either not in favour, undecided or marked as "don’t know" - a rather high percentage compared to the 70 percent or more support from non-Malays he had received in the last general election.

These latest statistics are worrying. The worry is not so much the sliding non-Malay support for Anwar, but how is Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)going to compete with Umno which is using its traditional ‘Malay protector’ approach to woo Malay voters.

If PKR goes for short term gains, it will become another Umno which makes no difference even if the federal government is alternated. But if PKR persists to be fair, it must be able to persuade the bulk of the Malay voters to believe that it can offer good protection for Malay rights, whilst not negating the well-being of other communities or going against its multi-racial principle.

But PKR is walking a tight rope here, with DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia on one side, and PAS’s religious centric approach on the other side. Many believe only Anwar can bring these two parties together and persuade them to have a moderate approach. Many also believe that it was precisely because of this so-called ’Anwar’s factor’ that a political tsunami occurred on March 8.

Apparently there is now an established understanding in Pakatan that even DAP will have no problem accepting Malay as an official language, so long as vernacular education is allowed to continue in this country.

So long as its is consistent with the Islamic values of fighting for justice and freedom, there is no question of PAS abandoning Pakatan to join Umno/Barisan Nasional.

Lately, it is understood that Pakatan has made a decision whereby regardless of whether there is a change of federal government, efforts must be stepped up to govern the five states controlled by opposition in a transparent and efficient manner.

Teething problems cannot be avoided but the public will not tolerate the same policies practiced by the previous BN government. Similarly, transparency and accountability are not the only improvements the public want to see. What happened to creativity and ingenuity in policies?

In other words, Pakatan must continue to search for the best answers and approaches to all the major questions at hand, be they structural, inter-party, state, national, local or even global.