There is a group of people who specialise in putting Keadilan and Reformasi down whenever they have the opportunity. A recent example is Disappointed , who in a recent letter to malaysiakini has peddled the usual reasons to downplay Keadilan and its importance.

1) Keadilan is a o­ne-issue party, namely that of seeking the release of Anwar Ibrahim.

There is no doubt that the Anwar issue plays a major role in Keadilan's thinking. And why not? It was the treatment meted out to Anwar that led to the birth of the whole Reformasi movement and caused the single biggest upheaval in Malaysian political history.

You cannot divorce the need for an overhaul of the Malaysian political system without the need to keep pressing for Anwar to be released. No o­ne else carries the charisma, respect and true power that Anwar does - and that terrifies his detractors.

There are others who assert that Anwar is no longer important. Well, if he is no longer important, the government would release him in less time than it takes for Mahathir to get to the airport for his next junket. Why continue being criticised both nationally and internationally by continually keeping this 'unimportant' man in custody?

Releasing Anwar would ensure the collapse of Umno within a matter of days. That's how powerful this true Malay (and Malaysian) hero is.

2) Keadilan did not win support in the last election because it did not stand up to PAS and its Islamic agenda.

There is partial truth to this assertion. There is no doubt that Keadilan floundered within the context of the Barisan Alternatif when it started getting pulled in two directions by PAS o­n the o­ne hand, and the pro-Chinese DAP o­n the other.

Instead of boldly asserting a stand based o­n its own admirable, common-sense and multiracial manifesto, Keadilan tried to be all things to all people and ended up looking indecisive, weak and politically naive.

Instead of sticking to the new way that its arrival heralded, Keadilan (perhaps it was not yet established enough to be confident of its own base) succumbed to being jostled around by two parties, which in their own way are as much political dinosaurs as Umno.

But a major reason Keadilan did not gain traction was because the people themselves have become brainwashed to such an extent, that looking at things racially is the o­nly way most of them know. Despite having an intense dislike for BN, many Malaysians still sought 'shelter' in race-based alternatives.

Disappointed implies that the reason non-Malays did not vote for Keadilan in the last election was because the party did not stand up to PAS.

That may be true in some cases. But the brutal truth is that the majority of non-Malays were simply terrified into voting for the ruling party by Umno's sarong 'n' parong crowd.

And guess what? It was because the non-Malays voted for the BN instead of Keadilan that PAS slipped in through the back door to become the biggest opposition grouping at the federal level.