Haris was always for the people and when he stumbled and made wrong choices, he was never shy to admit it publicly.

His passing affected me deeply. His passing is epochal in the sense that the language and symbols we use as a shorthand for dissent, like ABU (anything but Umno) for instance, sprung from his ingenuity when dealing with a hegemon with vast propaganda organs.

Here is a snippet of a conversation (“conversation, commander, not interview”, he reminded me) we had some time ago.

“Almost all of us have racist tendencies to varying degrees which, wittingly or otherwise, we picked up from our elders and we, in turn, pass down to the next generation. A race relations act which criminalises acts seen as 'racist' will help to, in time, weed these tendencies out from our society.

“An example might help. We still see coffee shops with signage announcing, 'Please do not spit', even in this day and age. A law to criminalise spitting in any public place, and effectively policed and enforced through prosecution through our courts, may one day see those signage become redundant.

“Similarly, if it was the law that if a child below say, age 15, was heard uttering ‘keling’, ‘malai quai’, or ‘cina babi’, the parent would be charged with an offence, and this law was effectively policed and enforced, I dare say we would hear less and less of these utterances from future generations.

“So, yes, we need a race relations act.”

PSM

My final pick is not a person but an organisation, which I suppose means a group of people.

Over the past year, PSM has demonstrated that it cannot win elections, is mocked by mainstream political supporters, and its political operatives get detained by the state security apparatus in the prime minister’s backyard.

A PSM operative once told me that it does not matter if Harapan supporters vilify them online because what is important are the issues PSM raises. The issues PSM raises, unfortunately, do not gain any traction with urban voters who right now are being terrified by their leaders with the green wave.

I have made the case as to why a grassroots-level outfit like PSM would be an asset not only to the oppositional forces in this country, it could be the conduit to the marginalised Malay underclass and the brewing class dialectic in the greater Malay polity.

Relying on the religiosity of Amanah and the old-school racial demagoguery of Umno/PKR is not going to create the environment that sustains the kind of change the anti-theocratic forces in this country claim they want for Malaysia.

S Arutchelvan never fails to remind Harapan of its broken promises and has a knack for cutting through the horse manure with his folksy public statements.

PSM remains the fly in the ointment of the mainstream political class and by doing so, reminds us that pretty words and hollow slogans are merely the means for establishment parties to gaslight the base.

But it doesn't matter. The reality is that PSM will continue fighting the right fight and even though their successes may be small and go unreported in the mainstream press, I for one am glad that people all over the country are being helped by a party that does not win elections but carries on working for the good of people who more often than not, do not vote or a mainstream who rejects them.