Furthermore, it was Umno which curtailed the powers of the royalty under former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It was probably the one utilitarian thing the party did, no doubt for self-serving reasons.

Where does Bersama stand?

I do not care which DAP faction Pua belongs to because I believe that the party has become part of the problem.

What I want to know is where Bersama stands on issues that affect the country, like fidelity to the Constitution.

Rafizi said, “We don’t care if the seats are held by PKR, DAP, Amanah, Bersatu, or Umno - if there is a need for us to fight, we will do so.” What does this mean?

Honestly, nearly every seat has been infected by Madani’s neo-BN-ism. How would this translate when it comes to his belief in multiethnic middle-ground politics?

To this, we should add that when Rafizi criticises PKR, it is welcomed with open arms, but supposing he is critical of the DAP, then what happens?

Data determining where candidates are fielded sounds suspect.

The urban areas, for instance, are rife with political and corporate corruption, which determines a kind of bureaucratic mafia controlled by ruling regimes, which is ultimately destroying this country.

And yet, urban voters, especially non-Malays, are willing to throw in their lot with legacy parties for various reasons.

Do not get me wrong. I will be more than happy if Bersama breaks up the monopoly in urban and semi-urban areas because power and policies flow down from these areas.

If Bersama even becomes a fly in the ointment that powers the gravy train, which is what is destroying the majority community, this would be a welcome change from what we have now.

Indeed, what we are witnessing is that our urban and semi-urban areas, which used to be somewhat progressive enclaves, are slowly succumbing to the religiosity of Madani.

Take the recent alarm raised by Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung about the guidelines regarding non-Malay houses of worship.

As usual, we are told these guidelines are suspended pending review, but it is the old game being played over and over again.

It might just work

If Bersama walks the progressive talk and the majority community sees leaders who are willing to slay sacred cows for the betterment of all Malaysians, who knows, this may affect the local politics of rural areas.

The majority have never really had an alternative when it comes to mainstream politics. While the non-Malays had to choose the lesser of two evils, the majority, for whatever reasons, were content with the status quo.

Except now, geopolitics is changing everything so fast, and the economic competition brought upon by migrant workers and encroachment into traditional Malay domains is fueling resentment.

Let us not forget that Nik Nazmi understands that appealing to the Malay far-right is not a viable strategy, especially since Perikatan Nasional does that so well.

“At the end of the day, we can’t outflank PN in terms of playing the Malay or Islam card, because we know that that is their comparative advantage in a way.”

Nik Nazmi’s words were prophetic when he said this about PKR: “It’s always a challenging balancing act, and I think PKR feels it the most. We get squeezed out in the middle because our constituencies are multiracial.

“For many political parties, they have easy template answers or solutions. But for PKR, we can’t, because, you know, we have people who are very, very liberal on one end and you have people who are quite conservative on the other in our constituency.”

Now we have Bersama, which is supposed to be unabashedly progressive, which means there should be no balancing act.

Same old, same old doesn’t cut it

This is an important point because the mainstream political establishment is going to attack Bersama by trolling them on race and religion issues.

Blaming Umno or even the prime minister just doesn’t cut it. We do not need a collection of political types coming out and spewing bromides.

What is needed are leaders who are unafraid to speak out against those seeking to inflame communal tensions.

We need leaders who would understand that these so-called fringe voices are merely parroting mainstream policies of racial and religious superiority.

Keep in mind that policy decisions and implementation are based on race and religion, and it remains to be seen if Bersama will face these issues head-on or will quibble, which means it is not really on a kamikaze mission.

Rafizi seems to understand this. In 2017, he said that in order to save Malaysia, the Malays must be won over.

“We are partly responsible for the predicament we are in because we have taken the approach that they don’t understand. The more we talk down to them, the more they don’t trust us.

“We just have to convince the people enough that we can do a better job. We must honestly accept failings and offer solutions that may be controversial.”

If Bersama is really on a kamikaze mission, it would offer controversial solutions, which may even be controversial to the non-Malays.

Rational Malaysians have heard feel-good rhetoric, but action is what saves a country.