The central theme of Icerd is eliminating all forms of racism and discrimination and while the legalese of this convention is contextualised in support of certain race-based agendas. At the heart of it, what its proponents hoped Icerd would do is put us on the road towards reforming a system which is mired in the kind of racism and bigotry detrimental to social and economic cohesion.

What Icerd does is remind people that we are equal. At the very least, special provisions could be attempted for marginalised communities to make them equal. You may disagree with affirmative action programmes for the minority, but you have to be invested in the system to believe that, by virtue of race, you have certain privileges.

The political class is hypocritical and mendacious when they want to tackle racism in the property market (for instance), but ignore the racism in the government. However, the rakyat is hypocritical when they justify certain forms of racism, but demand that the government confront the racism in the government.

This is how Icerd could have changed the racial narrative in this country because it encourages unpleasant conversations about race which goes beyond the policies of the state.

Ad inifinitum

All this goes back to the Bangsa Malaysia Kool-Aid. That stupid idea that seeks to eliminate race from the discourse under certain - political expedient - conditions.

This has made an honest conversation about race impossible. If people were seriously interested in reform, they would support something like Icerd and condemn the racism that is perpetrated through government policy as well as condemn racism carried out in the private sector. 

What is more important is that a certain segment of the political class should support this idea instead of making the idea seem unsuitable for this country at the present moment.

Why, because for the political class, the “present moment” is an indefinite period of time because it is easier to win power in the status quo instead of running on ideas of change.

What we are dealing with here when it comes to anti-discrimination policies is the reality that the political class has no interest in tackling this issue for various reasons.

The Malay political class want to keep the gravy train running on time and the non-Malay political class wants to benefit from the political power of the Malay establishment.

So what do we get? We get the base riled up about issues like the jailing of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and salivating at the possible jailing of other Malay uber alles leaders.

Meanwhile, the system endures and the racist and bigoted policies will continue to define the political terrain in Malaysia until the non-Malay vote becomes irrelevant. This remains the state of play.

Read more: The Icerd outrage