I like Syahredzan. He has chutzpah, you have to have it if you play in the DAP swimming pool which is supposed to be “Bangsa Malaysia”.

At the same time, you have to uphold race and religion, and you belong to a party which claims it has a secular foundation but does not want to spook its Malay partners.

In 2019, Syahredzan wrote a piece asking if free speech was for fascists. If you have forgotten, activist Helmi Effendy ranted on social media, calling for a “Night of Long Knives” for liberal Malays and certain non-Malays. In essence, he was calling for the murder of these people.

Syahdrdzan wrote - “It is also clear that in advocating extrajudicial killings, Helmi has stepped beyond the boundaries of free speech.

“Even the most ardent advocate of freedom of speech and expression will agree that free speech stops when you call for injury or death onto others. But what about situations where it is less straightforward? What about those spreading extreme right-wing narratives, or what is known as ‘fascist’ ideology? How do we deal with such expressions?”

What Helmi said, when you really think about it, is not something which is anathema when it comes to the mainstream political discourse in this country.

Malay political operatives are always accusing each other of being race traitors. They are always claiming that the Malay polity will lose its power to non-Malays.

So, what Helmi wrote is merely taking this position to its logical extreme. The demonisation of progressive Malays is a strategy to maintain political power.

Madani is no different

What Madani has demonstrated, even more so than when Perikatan Nasional or BN were in power, is the disparity of treatment when it comes to not only free speech issues but also the consequences of transgressions when it comes to the laws of the state.

This includes Malays who assumed that under Madani, there would be more freedom to express their ideas and influence the political ecosystem.

Syahredzan wrote - “Those who spread extremist expressions already have a platform. They even have a political audience. It would be naive to think that they can be defeated simply by being ignored.

“Instead, such expressions must be called out. An incredulous claim that Islam is under threat because of a commemorative stamp must be exposed, challenged and even ridiculed.”

How does one tell the difference between mainstream political ideology and “far-right” ideology? How exactly is the ideology of PN different from the mainstream political ideology of the coalition government when it comes to racial and religious policy in this country?

This is the burden of race, when it comes to the Malays who want to uphold secular and democratic principles and norms, even though they are observant Muslims.

Is there a dissonance there? Yes, but only when the majority continue to be narcotised by race and religion.

Demonising liberals

Indeed, demonising liberals, especially the Malays, has been part of the Madani government. When a right-wing imbecile calls out liberals, they are essentially talking about progressive Malays.

And when a Malay is called a race traitor, it means he or she does not believe in racial and religious superiority.

Keep in mind that in 2001, the current prime minister identified as a “liberal” and he gave very cogent reasons as to why.

Addressing his supporters, Anwar Ibrahim said - "We are liberal in a sense that we are willing to listen, to discuss and are tolerant of other views."

Anwar said the alternative to being "liberal" was to have an authoritarian regime where differences in opinion were not tolerated.

"If not, you can choose an authoritarian regime, like the Taliban. ’Semua tak boleh’ (everything is forbidden). All sorts of things will result in punishment. Women can't go to school. That would be our fate, but I won't choose that path."

Fast forward to 2018 and Anwar is decrying the super liberals. Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli talks about the ultra-liberals in his defence of the former deputy prime minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail - “But certainly to some extreme activists, her wearing ‘tudung’ and more Malay-looking in her outlook and appearance will always be seen as biased towards more Malay conservative.”

Do not for one minute fall for the horse manure of people who tell you to ignore someone like Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh.

He is allowed by the state to continue because he serves a political and strategic purpose and this includes demonising Malays who do not fall into the racial and theocratic paradigm of maintaining political power.

Why hasn't the mainstream Malay political apparatus decried or sanctioned this kind of speech against certain Malays?

A long time ago, I knew this mid-level potentate in the police. Now the non-Malays were wary of him enough to affix upon him the label of “ultra”.

But here’s the thing, the Malays did not really care much for him either, labelling him at various times a “pengkhinat bangsa” (traitor to the race).

The fact that he belonged to a bygone gang unit who spoke fluent Mandarin, Tamil and a smattering of Hokkien just muddied the waters.

You see, he believed that the existing Malay political power structures had betrayed the Malay polity.

Even though he was an observant Muslim, he believed the religious apparatus had betrayed its spiritual mission and had become an appendage to the political state meant to narcotise the Malay community.

It is not that he did not want to support Umno, he just thought they were not doing their job of elevating the Malay community.

He believed that the state wanted the Malay community to remain as “peasants” (his words) while a cadre of imbeciles got rich from the coffers of the state.

He prided himself on being an honest cop, which was why he claimed he was stuck in his job and he always intoned “family, country and God”, whenever we used to meet when I was in his neck of the woods.

He was my kind of traitor.