‘Break away from ethnic prison', the media recently quoted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as saying. In the article he further said that most Malaysians were still concerned about their own community.

But can Malaysians avoid this type of attitude when the prime minister's own political party, Umno, and practically all the component parties of Barisan Nasional that he leads are one-race racial parties?

The best way to change this attitude and to allow Malaysians to think as one is to ban mono-racial and mono-religious parties in the country. The first step would be for the Barisan Nasional component parties to take.

If our PM is sincere about this, this is the first step needed. I do not accept excuses such as it would be difficult and will not work. As long as we continue with this form of politicking, it would be difficult and would not work, but if we have the will to do away with race-based parties by law, then it will work.

BN does not have the two-thirds majority to change the constitution to ban mono or uni-racial political parties, but if the opposition is sincere about a ‘One Malaysia', then they will support such a bill. It would be a good test for the opposition to see whether they walk the talk.

Actions like helping the poor of every community may work to a limited extent. As pointed out by some, the result is negative and those who ‘give' are now responding by saying that those who ‘receive' are ungrateful.

Why should recipients of ‘goodies' be grateful to any particular political party when they use government means to provide the ‘gifts'? Any political party in power can do likewise.

Because we are so racial-minded, we tend to think of our own race as represented by our political parties. For example, Umno will think of the Malays and MCA the Chinese and MIC the Indians so each party - even in a coalition government - will cater to their own racial needs.

This is very wrong and is the root cause of divisiveness among Malaysians. Look at the issues raised by race-based parties in today's politics. Top of the list among non-Malay political parties are issues like the New Economic Policy and the Islamisation of the nation.

Among the Malays, they issues raised are like the economic strength of the Chinese, Chinese education policies, religious buildings and ‘disturbances to the environment' ie, pig farms etc. Why are these issues raised by the various race-based parties?

They are raised because they garner support for their racial groups. If you champion apples, you must do things that will please apples, right? However, if there is a mixed fruit basket, then you cannot just champion apples or oranges but all the fruits as a whole.

As a Malaysian of Chinese origin and being of third generation by birth here, I call upon all sensible political leaders and aspiring political leaders to consider this matter seriously for the sake of our nation.

We are nearly an century behind time when it comes to racial understanding and integration and maybe we have even drifted further behind. Many years before and after independence, we were still okay in terms of racial acceptance and understanding but now we talk only of racial ‘tolerance'.

The two terms differ a lot in meaning and the latter (‘tolerance') is not what we want, it is ‘acceptance' we should look towards to.

For the sake of our future generations, let us hope today's leaders and people make the right decision - a decision to do away with racial politics and work towards a united one Malaysia.