COMMENT Do you remember the euphoria? The dreams?

You were probably there at Bersih 2.0, on the streets of Kuala Lumpur together with thousands upon thousands of Malaysians.

You probably helped out in one campaign or another during GE13, fighting valiantly and fervently believing your own words every time you shouted: “Ini kalilah!”

You probably stood shoulder to shoulder, at countless vigils, by-elections and rallies, with Malaysians from vastly different backgrounds as yourself - different races, religions, classes - united in your dream for a better Malaysia.

Where is that dream today?

After Tuesday’s unilateral announcement that Pakatan Rakyat is dead, many would probably answer something along the lines of “burnt to the ground”.

Amidst the bitter disappointment, tears and anger, there is an even worse sentiment increasingly prevalent: total lack of surprise or concern.

Politics vs statesmanship

In the immediate aftermath, we will surely see a flurry of finger pointing.

DAP will blame PAS. PAS will blame DAP. PKR... doesn’t appear to be much more than a wallflower at this point, or a parent totally unable to control squabbling siblings.

Meanwhile, many of us will be blaming politicians. Some of us will be blaming DAP politicians, some of us will be blaming PAS politicians. A good many of us will be blaming all politicians.

I am certainly not here to defend the politicians involved.

I’m certain readers are by now bored to death by my repeated stories of the difference in political dynamics during general elections, and in between them.

This is quite simply the difference between short-sighted politicians and visionary statesmen, as well as a product of our political system, where one must pander to one’s party base - as opposed to the rakyat as a whole - in order to make it big. After all, you cannot be the big boss unless you are boss of your party first.

Deep rooted political divisiveness

Every party in Malaysia suffers from this, of late most noticeably Umno, DAP and PAS. As a result, Malaysia’s political landscape suffers even more.

Ever since we failed to respond to Onn Jaafar’s ( photo ) urging for non-race based parties in the days even before independence, Malaysia’s entire political corpus has been built on the principle of division.

Arguably, every existing major party in Malaysia is doomed to failure because its core essence is still built on divisiveness.

Many have laudably tried to change their image into a more politically correct one, but what we have seen over the years is that when push comes to shove, and general elections are anything more than say a year away, true stripes show.

Most of the time these stripes relate to some sort of ethno-religious base, but sometimes they also relate to whether or not the party’s core is grounded in firm principles or opportunism.

I imagine many will feel that these observations only apply to the parties they don’t like, but the sad truth is that they very likely apply to the party they do like as well.

Onus on us

If we lump all the blame for the current break-up on politicians alone however, then we are making the same short-sighted mistakes informed by the same irresponsible attitude.

It is in fact contradictory to have the cynical view that politicians are crap, while basically waiting for them to solve all our problems.

At the end of the day, politicians are a reflection of ourselves, and I do believe there is a lot of truth to the saying we get the government we deserve.

If we want to see a different political landscape, it is us ultimately that must do things differently.

I know it’s easy to talk big about grandiose, noble ideas. The devil as always is in the details.

While it’s impossible to go into all those details in one article, I will go so far as to say it is most likely the solution to our political problems lay outside our current political players.

A slow, fresh start

My subjective and personal view is that Malaysia’s current political parties are trapped by an outdated ethos.

Within these parties there are always good people trying to move in better, more principled directions, but thus far at least, they have not prevailed against decades of intra-party institutional culture.

On top of that is what is essentially a bipartisan adherence to a very feudal style of politics, that has proven just as intractable in today’s existing parties.

Thus my personal bias is towards a fresh start. While there has been a rush towards creating new parties, I do not advocate rushing.

I think taking a long, drawn out time to get the foundations of a political movement absolutely right far outweigh the benefits of any short-term, seemingly expedient approaches.

Perhaps we should be less obsessed about just replacing Barisan Nasional, and more concerned about replacing Barisan Nasional with something genuinely good, and something really built to last.

Burning dreams

For many of us, the excitement of the Bersih rallies and general elections were a lot about the prospects of imminent change. One cannot fault Malaysians for that, given how bad things are.

For what I dare say are just as many though, it wasn’t just about political change. It was about seeing Malaysians we were always taught - by both sides of the political spectrum, subtly or un-subtly - were irreparably different from us come together; and discovering that we weren’t so different after all.

The significance of seeing a Malay carry a DAP flag, or a Chinese person carrying a PAS one was not just about toppling BN. It was about crossing an ethnic and ideological gulf that has been widening for decades.

The value in that is not just in its political implications, but in its implications for the possibilities of a more united Malaysia.

Just because the alliance between PAS and DAP has broken down (again), with their leaders at each others throats, I’m willing to bet that while the going was good, some of the grassroots from those two demographics made real and lasting friendships - friendships that will outlast whatever changes in political climate we will have to weather.

This is why I still have faith in us as a nation. For even as some of us burn the Malaysian dream all around us, others yet still keep that dream burning in our hearts.

NATHANIEL TAN is a member of the Malaysiakini team.