Beyond all the sound and the fury, the fundamental question remains: are we truly ready to embrace diversity in Malaysia?

Those of us born non-bumiputera are likely to think of this question in terms of whether or not the rights and privileges accorded to bumiputeras will ever be open to the rest of us.

Diversity however, is a two-way street. It’s easy to ask, “When will I be accepted?” How many of us will bother to ask, “When will I accept others?”

It’s easy to hate the PAS ulama gang. I don’t know any of them personally, and have had many friendly interactions with the progressives in the party. The latter are usually much easier for people of my background and ideology to talk to.

The ulama and the conservatives, however, do not exist in a vacuum. They have more of an appeal to the grassroots than a great many of the others who make a lot of noise in public.

My favourite case to use as illustration is Temerloh in GE13. Saifuddin Abdullah ( photo ), darling of Malaysian urbanites everywhere, ran against serban-clad, concert-protesting Nasrudin Hassan - and lost. An almost unthinkable result, had the contest been in any Klang Valley seat.

Who can truly appeal to rural M’sians?

What I think many of us in the city don’t understand is that religious conservatives appeal to a much wider swathe of Malaysia than we’d like to believe.                                  

This has serious implications for nation building as a whole, but even setting that aside for longer exposition elsewhere, there are very simple political implications to consider.

If the PAS progressives broke off from the party to form PasMa, which many want to be accepted into Pakatan right after Pakatan gives PAS the boot, then PasMa in Pakatan will essentially serve the same function as MCA in BN.

They will basically be window dressing, and will only (possibly) win in urban, non-Malay majority areas - the exact same areas where Pakatan has already saturated wins in the last two elections, thus adding no electoral value whatsoever.

If PasMa were to go up against PAS in rural Malay areas, I’m pretty sure they will have even less success than PAS has had in the recent elections - what more if PAS is indeed finally pushed into the waiting arms of Umno.

So, failing to make inroads in the areas that matter electorally, whatever left of Pakatan will be left with either the same number of seats, or even less.

Guan Eng and Hadi have equal love for Pakatan

I understand the sentimental attachment many of us have for DAP, but reading all the comments over the last few weeks, I am very much convinced of this simple fact - DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has no more love for Pakatan than PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang does.

If Lim had any real investment in the idea of a united Pakatan, there is no way a man of his political acumen would have launched attack after attack that ensured the win of the ulama, by perpetrating a siege mentality amongst the PAS grassroots.

It is clear as day that that was his preferred - or at least predicted - result, and that he went all out to make as much hay as he could from the affair.

This is only reinforced by the way Selangor DAP is now beating its chest, applying the George Bush logic in their “PAS or DAP” ultimatum to the Selangor menteri besar: you are either with us, or against us.

The behaviour of both DAP and PAS are in fact rooted in the same cause. Between general elections - and we’re smack in the mid point between them now - politicians from practically every party in the country feel less pressure to please the electorate as a whole, and lean much more heavily towards securing their intra-party bases.

In DAP this is manifested as above. In Umno, it manifests in the war Dr Mahathir Mohamad wages open war against Umno’s incumbent president.

PAS, meanwhile, is no less guilty. I would not cast Hadi as a man obsessed with hudud, given the approach PAS took in GE13. However, putting it aside for the general elections only to bring it out again when wanting to appeal to the party base, suggests politics of convenience more than politics of principle.

So, the clock is set back for all of us, just like it was in the days of Barisan Alternatif, and we are left with no viable political entity to take advantage of the relentless turmoil within Umno.

Are we ready to build genuine bridges?

It is always easier to just stick to what we know. Easier to only want ‘our kaki’ as allies, and ignore those who are different than us, who have different values, and different ideas about the world.

The easier way however, is what got Malaysia into the state it is now. Exacerbating it are politicians who are obsessed with short-term gains and party bases, rather than the statesmen we so badly need to not only see, but also sacrifice for, the bigger picture.

If we truly want to leave BN’s politics of division behind, then we need to stop being so quick to demonise those who don’t suit our fancy, stop looking for shortcuts, and start the long process of building more genuine bridges based on the many things we truly have in common.

As to our friends in the PAS progressive camp, my humble advice would be: stay on, keep faith with the party. In time and with optimism, it is perfectly possible for the cycling of leaders and ideologies to go around again, just as it did in the previous PAS elections. By keeping the party intact in all its diversity, they may one day be the bridge we so badly need.

NATHANIEL TAN is a member of the Malaysiakini team.