Anwar Ibrahim is now on the comeback trail of mainstream politics after spending six years in prison for a crime he rightly maintains he did not commit, being vindicated by the success of his appeal in September.

Anwar should blend his fight for social justice with the aspirations of all Malaysians and there is no better platform for him to do so than to have a strengthened Parti Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia (PKRM) which has rightfully made him its adviser.

In many ways Anwar today is on the same threshold as Onn Jaafar in 1951. Onn Jaafar, the man most likely to become an Umno prime minister in an independent nation, had a vision of turning his party into a multi-racial organisation because he could foresee that it was the only viable course for a future united multi-racial (at that time Malayan) nation.

He wanted then to open the doors of Umno to the non-Malays so that, by his own reckoning, the Malays would be less communal and the locally-domiciled Chinese and Indians would be more inclined to make Malaya their home rather than to be loyal to China or India.

However Umno, led new president Tunku Abdul Rahman reaffirmed the need for the Malays to be communal under the banner of nationalism, rejected his proposal for non-Malay membership of the party and by extension, destroyed his vision of a united Malayan nation.

So Onn Jaafar had no choice but to resign from Umno in order to achieve his vision of a future united multi-racial independent nation through aother political vehicle - the multi-racial Independence of Malaya Party (IMP).

But Onn Jaafar failed to get IMP off the ground in 1951 because the different races then were living in water-tight separate communities in the kampungs and towns nationwide and voted solidly for communal parties like Umno and MCA.

Anwar, compartively, is in a better position today to do what Onn Jaafar failed to do in 1951. For one thing, Umno is no more the undisputed champion of the Malays (unlike 1951) because the Malay ground today is politically split three ways between Umno, PAS and PKRM.

And despite all ongoing moves by Umno/BN and PAS to divide the people of all races along racial and religious lines, Malaysians today are much more united compared to 1951. Chinese, Indians and East Malaysians below 50 years of age have developed a Malaysian outlook and look upon Malaysia as their only home.

Unlike their grandparents and parents, they are local born full-fledged citizens of the country and well- versed in Bahasa Malaysia, their own mother tongues and English - unlike the position of their parents and grandparents in 1957.

This is a manifestation of their loyalty to the country in the eyes of the Malays, many of whom have left their traditional kampungs and migrated to the towns as a result of the NEP restructuring and have been more in contact with the Chinese and Indians to understand them better compared to 1951. As such, the younger generations of both Malays and non-Malays - despite their differences - are more integrated and in a better position to see one another as Malaysians.

Like Onn Jaafar in 1951, Anwar today has a national stature by virtue of his status as a former deputy prime minister and as such should take advantage of the fact that more and more Malays are finding more common ground with non-Malays on the need for social justice.

The solution to a united Bangsa Malaysia a la Wawasan 2020 lies in social justice and affirmative action for all races based on need - not Ketuanan Melayu whose special privileges benefit only Umno Malays and Negara Islam whose 'hukum hudud' scares both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Anwar should now forcefully exhort PKRM's new multi-racial politics and spell out its details so as to once and for all break away from the racial and religious politics of Umno and PAS. Just like the IMP in 1951, PKRM has the potential to attract nationwide support because its appeal cuts across all communal lines.

When Umno/MCA crushed the IMP in 1951, a cruel blow was dealt to multi-racial politics from which it has yet to recover. Umno threatened to expel its members who joined IMP and later, other multi- racial parties.

Not having Malay members in large numbers for a moderating influence, these non-Malay led multi- racial parties soon lapsed into articulating only Chinese issues - alienating the Malays from them even more.

Umno was thus able to exploit this vicious circle which trapped multi-racial parties and depicted them as essentially chauvinist parties with the communal tag even though, in principle, they espoused the rights of all races.

Indeed, Umno had committed arson while at the same time shouting 'Fire! fFre!'. Thus DAP, PPP, Gerakan, etc. all had been manipulated by Umno into becoming Chinese communal parties in the eyes of the Malays because Umno had been able to prevent significant numbers of Malays from joining their ranks.

The few Malays who ever joined Chinese-led multi-racial parties have been accused of being 'traitors' to their own race.

But PKRM is able to get round this Umno strategy of killing multi-racial parties. PKRM is led by Malays who form at least 80 percent of its members. Umno cannot turn round and accuse PKRM of being a Chinese party (like it accused the DAP), because the latter has an overwhelming Malay- majority rank and file.

Herein lies PKRM's golden opportunity to win the support of a significant number of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans because in being led by Malays, it has overcome the first hurdle any multi- racial party has to in order to be successful in Malaysia.

Anwar can now articulate PKRM's new politics to the many who sitting on the fence waiting to see what PKRM can offer them. The minute non-Malays are convinced PKRM can do something for them with Anwar at the helm, they will support PKRM wholeheartedly. And their increasing numbers as PKRM members will eventually turn the PKRM into a genuinely multi-racial party in the long run.

The vicious circle of Umno's machinations in snuffing out multi-racial parties would then have been broken

Most significantly, Anwar must carry out what he has preached and not be like Pak Lah who is a 'cakap tapi tak bikin' type.

Anwar should not let Malaysians of all races down. He shouldn't also let the memory of the late Onn Jaafar down all the more so when Onn's own son, Hussein, and grandson Hishammuddin, both top Umno leaders, have failed him miserably in continuing the racist policies of Umno.