COMMENT While PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli may describe it as a shifting of strategies, nascent federal opposition pact Pakatan Harapan's re-focusing of its efforts to take on the issues of the position and welfare of the majority Malay community may stem from something more urgent.

Speaking at the ' Can the opposition win Malay votes in the 14th general election? ' forum, the opposition political strategist said that the opposition has previously been "cautious" and was "not overt" in approaching the issue.

"But we can no longer keep doing that. They (Malays) want a direct answer and we have to give a direct answer. We must face the reality that we must voice out the concerns of the Malay community," he said.

Though caution and covertness may not be the correct words to describe their earlier efforts to woo the Malay grassroots, the federal opposition pact's last incarnation Pakatan Rakyat had used the easy way out - 'subcontracting' the Malay agenda to former pact member PAS.

While opposition leaders spout high-minded political rhetoric about being inclusive and promoting non-racial politics, nothing is actually being done to address the fears, genuine or otherwise, of the Malay grassroots, beyond getting PAS to pacify them.

The fact is you can't just wish away the problem with political rhetoric, nor can you depend on just one party to handle the issue, something which Rafizi conceded at the forum.

While he pinned this as a practice common for BN, it is nonetheless also the modus operandi of the former Pakatan.

In practice, nothing concrete was done by the former Pakatan, as a whole, to directly address ‘Malay fears’ which are being played up by Umno. Fears that may be easily dismissed by the more well-informed Malay urbanites but nonetheless remain deep-rooted in the psyche of their rural kinfolk.

And now Harapan have to swallow the bitter pill after PAS' exit left them with no one to play the ‘Malay pacifier’.

This forces them to face the hard truths, that the Islamic party's exit has hurt them more than they cared to admit, and that while Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) brought with them the best and brightest of what was attractive about 'liberal' PAS, the splinter party still lacks substantial influence among the Malay grassroots.

Some hard choices

Whatever the case, PAS' exit may be the best thing to happen to the federal opposition pact, especially its new incarnation Harapan, as it will now have to really engage with the issue which has been the best weapon Umno has in its political arsenal since Merdeka.

Though this may force Harapan to make some hard choices and it will be difficult for its Chinese-centric pact member DAP to swallow.

As admitted by DAP elected representative Ong Kian Ming at the same forum, the socialist democratic party still struggles with its own ‘Chinese pacifier’ role and its need to quell the bogey of Malay dominance among its own Chinese grassroots.

And as for Amanah, it still has to struggle with the remnants of PAS Malay-Muslim centric mindset in its own membership, despite its supposedly more inclusive outlook. As reflected perhaps in the latest incident when Johor Amanah suggested that DAP not field candidates under its banner in Malay-majority areas.

This, as Harapan struggles to learn from the failure of Pakatan and nurture the hope of building a better alternative to the BN, in the midst of a more critical and politically fatigued rakyat.

The road will be hard for the next few years, but it may end up with making the pact stronger in the far future.

In the final analysis, Harapan will have to do all it can to address the bogey of Malay dominance that continue to haunt the Chinese, dismiss the fears of the Malays that they risk losing their place in their own country, and indeed even address the marginalisation of the Indians, while still maintaining an inclusive needs-based approach.

For only in doing so, will it truly affirm the coalition’s stated declaration of pursuing the ideals of non-racial politics and build a better Harapan.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of Team Malaysiakini .