When national hockey player Chua Boon Huat passed away last August, it was truly amazing to see how his team mates, some of whom were Muslims, became pallbearers and literally united the people of Taman Semabuk Perdana in Malacca.

When the  prominent lawyer Karpal Singh passed away earlier this year, the entire people of George Town were literally in tears and once again, the unity of the people of all races was evident.

And in our daily encounters, perhaps on a more smaller scale, we, too, must have had experienced this ‘unity’ factor, either through a friend or a teacher, and now, we can say even through some politicians (after a long long time since Tunku Abdul Rahman and company).

When we think of unity, we think of the number one. Not the number two, or three, but the number one.

Unity is a form of strength and it helps the defenceless, the weak, the poor and the oppressed. It is for this reason that  unity must  be the most important objective of a ruling government of the day. It is only with this objective in the forefront of their minds can a ruling government  look out for one and all.

For a  ruling government whose sole purpose in life is hell-bent on plundering a nation’s wealth, the concept of unity is somewhat intimidating and frightening. The prospect of checks and balances and exposure of corruption must take a back seat as far as this sort of ruling governments are concerned as these checks and balances and exposure will put a dent on the acts of plundering.

So, in order to continue to plunder a nation’s wealth for the benefit of a few, the best thing to do is to divide the people into classes of people headed by like-minded  corrupted leaders in  the hope that the people would have the perception that the welfare of these classes of people are taken care of by these so-called leaders.

While these  classes of people continue to have the perception in their minds that their  welfare is being taken care of, the like-minded leaders swim in their pool of wealth which they continue to plunder. And so the cycle continues. The people are divided, the education system is made in such a way that for some strange reason the best of the lot are nowhere to be seen in the government.

Dreading the concept of unity?

In Malaysia, the ruling government of Barisan Nasional is the epitome of such a ruling government which dreads the concept of unity.

Perhaps at the initial stages of post-Independence  during  the times of Tunku  Abdul  Rahman, the concept of a political party based on an alliance among races was necessary because it was for all intent and purposes meant to unite Malaysians as people spoke and read different languages. It was never meant to divide. Malaysia was at its infant stage.

We have seen in many developed nations that in order for there to  be a proper  check  and  balance in the administration of a country, they best way is to have a two party system. This way, one can check on the other. This way, one can expose the other for corruption.

Barisan Nasional, on the other hand, is on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to checks and balances. It essentially divides people into races and the so-called leaders of  the races govern the nation. And we can see how these so-called race leaders become richer and richer by the day while the ordinary folks are just left out in the cold. So, where is the check and balance?

This sort of government perhaps was prevalent in the medieval times where tyrants ruled  kingdoms by force and subjected the people to oppression by dividing them into classes or categories.

Today, in 2014, is such a divide by race actually necessary? Do we actually need an Umno, MCA or MIC? Are Malaysians still to be divided and governed and referred to according to race? Are we having different ‘governments’ for different races? To my mind, the federal government is to look out for the welfare of Malaysians irrespective of their race.

Perhaps the only way to put an end to this divide and conquer approach by Barisan Nasional, is for Malaysians to stand up as Malaysians, and not as a Malay or a Chinese or an Indian or a Dayak.

We must do what the friends of the late Chua Boon Huat and the late Karpal Singh did, they stood up as Malaysians.

PUTHAN PERUMAL is an Advocate & Solicitor of  the High Court of  Malaya.