The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, had proposed that the social contract be explained at educational institutions to enable the younger generation to have an indepth understanding of the pre-independence agreement.

In an immediate response, Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn was confident that Sultan Azlan Shah's proposal would serve the nation well if implemented.

However, he added that a comprehensive study must be done first before its implementation can be carried at the earliest in 2010.

Personally, I think there remain many of us within Malaysia who either do not acknowledge the existence of such a contract, or if we do, do not know what it was all about since there are no written documents recording the agreement of the parties to this contract. To top it all, all the parties to this contract are now deceased.

The closest piece of written document we have to which this 'social contract' must have given birth to is the Merdeka federal constitution - not the present day skewed federal constitution which has been amended 400 plus times since 1957.

I agree with both Sultan Azlan Shah and Hishammuddin that it will serve the nation well if the younger generation understands the objectives behind the formation of Malaysia.

But shouldn't we be having discussions first on whether the ‘social contract’ exists in the first place and the intentions of the Merdeka federal constitution with its conflicting articles regarding race and religion?

Many NGOs have tried to organise forums to discuss and better understand our Merdeka federal constitution but the government of the day has always allowed disruptive forces to curtail such intellectual discussions.

As a first step, if Hishammuddin is sincere about Sultan Azlan Shah's proposal, then he should convince his cabinet colleagues to allow government-sanctioned discussions to take place, behind closed doors if necessary.

Better still, the government itself should organise such discussions with representations from all stakeholders of this country.

And do not forget to put on the table for discussion not only the Merdeka federal constitution but the 20 Point Sabah Agreement and the 18 Point Sarawak Agreement which led to the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

Until and unless we can come to an agreement or compromise on all these fundamental issues, we will continue to have conflicts amongst all Malaysians since we can't even agree on a common platform to build our future on.

Fifty-one years have already been wasted but it is better late than never. With royal consent, all that is needed now is the political will - but will this be found wanting?