COMMENT | In conjunction with Merdeka Day, I have these brief messages of peace to both the next leader and the people led. We cannot know who will be the next prime minister, and which coalition or party will help us through this mess, but I hope this message is clear and simple: we hope for an election as clean as a sarong pelikat washed with Clorox.

Mr or Ms prime minister (who doesn’t have to be a Malay-Muslim, only a good man or woman), help all Malaysians, not just Malays or your own people, if you and your coalition are going to redesign strategies for peace, equality, and social justice.

We are all bumiputeras now; today’s generation of Malaysians, be they from Chinese, Indian, Malay, Kadazan-Dusun, Iban, Orang Asal, ‘orang hybrid’ or this or that heritage. Those have been here long enough to no longer call this land Tanah Melayu, but Bumi Bangsa Malaysia. We have toiled for the soil.

And you must remind yourself that you are prime minister for all. Not just for you, your family, and members of your family.

Poverty now cuts across racial lines, with an increasing number of those in the middle class now falling into the trap. Even the middle class are struggling to put food on their table.

There is no strong rationale any more, after 60 years of independence and being a country called Malaysia, to continue policies based on racial lines. Continuing these policies will guarantee another 50 years of race and class antagonism.

In the field of education especially, scholarships need to be given based on merit, talent, and needs, not because one is a bumiputera or a Malay, or because of birthright. If you are a Malaysian citizen, you ought to be enjoying the rights and privileges as well as the responsibilities that come with being a citizen. It’s that simple.

Let us not continue our policy of educational apartheid, Mr or Ms prime minister, if you and your party are to enjoy the support of all Malaysians. One crucial aspect of change is to dismantle the all-Malay, all-bumiputera, all-privileged school, and use its philosophy, paradigm, and pedagogical process to democratise education for all races.

Many of those in the elite and privileged boarding or residential schools, such as in Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM), are not from families that cannot afford a good education. Many are from wealthy families.

There are deserving children from all races that must be given every opportunity to excel, just like abject poor Malays were given the chance to back in the early 1970s, when the MRSM system was first introduced.

Mr or Ms prime minister, you must be fair and just to people of all races.

For example, open up privileged schools such as MRSM to children of all races. Open all monocultural educational institutions, such as Universiti Teknologi Mara, to Malaysians of all races. It will be better for the nation.

Look at the plight of other Malaysians. Promising billions of ringgit in educational, entrepreneurial, and economic aid to only one race defined by a one-dimensional construct is a political act with ill intent. Be wise in the political time you and your party have been given.

Again, reverse the apartheidisation trend in education – for the sake of our children’s future. Education is one of the best means of social reproduction to ensure the evolution of a just and progressive nation.

The New Economic Policy has been replaced with the New Economic Agenda, which promises fairness for all, not just for Malays and bumiputeras. Honour that.

In concluding this part of my plea I say this: in our country, there is enough to go around for everybody, not just to feed the greed of the few...