It’s my opinion that if any future opposition party sets itself up with an individual (or group) at its head then two things will happen - the individual/group will bias the philosophy of the party, and Umno will do its very best to tear that person/group down, thus destroying the structure of the party.  

If any opposition party bases its philosophy on negativity then Umno will simply ignore all the criticisms and attack the critics through the Sedition Act. The party will go nowhere because its so negative and backward-looking and will become demoralised by the harassment of  Umno.

It’s also my opinion that to have any substance then an opposition must represent all Malaysians and the only way it can do that is if the philosophy grows out of the needs of Malaysians. So here’s my suggestion for a no personality/ all Malaysia political future.

The first step is to start all Malaysians thinking about the future that they want, and that should be encouraged in a way that anyone can participate. Individuals should not have to go to meetings to have their voice heard, they should not have  to stand up and face ridicule in front of their peers. Every man, woman and child should have the right to contribute in whichever way is most convenient for them.  

There are however a few provisos. Contributions should remain anonymous, contributions must be in written format and contributions should all be positive in outlook.  For example, OUT is ‘cancel all bumi privileges’, IN is ‘equal opportunities for all Malaysians’. Nobody wants to hear any more criticism of Umno or Hadi Awang or whoever is the latest whipping boy for the negativity of this society.  

We all know what is wrong, what we want is details of how its wrong - not the education system stinks, but class sizes are too large/ there is too much emphasis of religion in the classroom/vernacular schools are undermining the system.  

We need Malaysians to describe the details of the problems they see in every avenue of government involvement with the people. We need Malaysians both amateur and professional to also suggest how those problems might be remedied.

How to achieve this goal? I would suggest that every website, blog, or Facebook page, etc, be used as a meeting point. Hard copies could be delivered to a central anonymous location. Lecturers in tertiary institutions  could set assignments to students to look into the future of their profession and suggest directions.

Meetings are still a possibility, but should be organised anonymously so that no individuals can be isolated and harassed. Contributions should be concise and one topic per contribution to make later collation possible.

Sorting and collating

Then would come the massive  task of sorting and collating all this information into problems and solutions. A task that should be done voluntarily by as many people as possible to limit the amount of bias. The outcome would be a collection of future directions with a choice of ways to address those issues. The wording should be designed to discourage bias.

The next step would be to distribute these options and choices as widely as possible for people to vote for their preferred options. Flood the country with choices and let the people make the decisions. The same modus operandi would be used as before. For sure there will be attempts to bias this referendum - multiple voting, false options papers - but a good statistician would be able to accommodate those biases.

The end result would be a clear indication of what Malaysians want. And a clear-cut indication of what an opposition should be fighting to achieve. With that in hand anyone with sufficient empathy with his/her fellow men could stand for Parliament. No need for charisma, no question about what that person stood for, because everyone who cares to know would know.