Gerakan veteran Dr Toh Kin Woon has lamented the difficulties of bringing changes within the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and conceded that he may have failed to make Malaysia "more open and democratic".

He said that race-based politics has been so entrenched in the political framework that it would take many decades to overcome.

"If I say I would like the country to be more open and democratic, I don't think I have succeeded. If I want the BN to be a non-corruptible party, of course how would I say I have succeeded," Dr Toh told Malaysiakini in an interview.

Toh, 63, currently serves in the Pulau Pinang State Executive Council.

He said he will soon be retiring from politics and will not be contesting in the coming general election.

Toh has been a Gerakan member since 1982 and has been the state assemblyperson for Machang Bubuk since 1995.

Last Friday, Gerakan Youth at the party's annual assembly called for the BN to abolish race-based parties and merge into a single entity.

The proposal was however rejected by BN chief, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The former academician said the rejection of the proposal was indicative that reforms will not occur anytime soon and commented that the party had limited success in moderating the increasingly racial stance the ruling BN is taking.

"Somehow race consciousness has taken such deep roots in the Malaysian political psyche that to uproot it is not an easy task at all," he said.

Mass protest needed

In the interview, Toh described the difficulties in affecting change within the ruling BN.

"You're talking about such a mammoth political structure with its own framework and a value system that have been so firmly entrenched.

"I think it would be a Don Quixote to think you could go in, barge in there and say I want to affect his change and that change," he said.

He said to bring out change, there would be a need for "mass protest" against racism involving "a broad spectrum of all communities."

Toh, who received his doctorate in economics in University Malaya, also advocated a "strong" civil society and a better opposition force.

"I believe in the institutionalisation of dissent. One key factor if you think about progress in any society is that you must have people who keep on being critical but at the same they are constructive," he said.

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