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By Harap Rasa Sayang

Even if Abdullah Ahmad Badawi steps down to make way for Mahathir Mohamad, Ahmad Ismail and Khir Toyo, it will be too late to turn back the clock.

Umno's racial politicians would have discovered that the nation has changed irreversibly.

Under the tutelage of Pakatan Rakyat, Malaysians of every race and creed dare to dream of living in a country without fear of the ISA, OSA, arbitrary arrests, kangaroo courts, trumped up charges, false allegations, wholesale corruption at the highest levels of government and deliberate incitement by racist politicians to street violence.     

Under Pakatan, the rakyat have learnt that it is their right to live without fear.

Under Pakatan they have tasted political freedom, and the freedom of speech and expression, and have witnessed first hand the power it lends them to hold the government accountable for its actions.  

The rakyat want to build a nation based on justice, rights and equality, and not fear.

If the racist politicians of Umno like Mahathir, Ahmad and Khir think they can wrest back Malay voting power with threats, accusations, scape-goating, and fear against the racial minorities, then they will be sorely disappointed.

The Malays don't scare easily anymore anywhere in Malaysia.

Racist rhetoric and false allegations and attempting to create Chinese bogeymen or perhaps Chinese bogeywomen like Teresa Kok and the Sin Chew Daily journalist will only make the educated Malays ashamed of Umno.   

Abdullah did teach Malaysians one valuable lesson.

It is possible to live in a less repressive environment. It is possible to live without fear.

However, when the fearless rakyat teach him that they want reform, he did not learn to listen. He listened to the corrupt warlords and racist chieftains in Umno instead.   

Invoking the ISA to create fear and instability is unforgivable.

There will always be racist and unscrupulous politicians willing to inflict injustice to serve their own financial ends.

Nevertheless the new political environmant makes it more difficult to profit using this blatantly criminal racist approach.  

It remains to be seen whether the new power brokers trying to make a comeback like Mahathir, Ahmad and Khir will have learnt this new lesson.

Malaysians of all races and creeds have learnt what it is like to live without fear under Pakatan. The Malays, Chinese and Indians who support PKR, PAS, and DAP are taught a new way to live. Ordinary Malaysians are determined to do the right thing.

There remains only one question, and that is to what lengths will Umno go to secure Malay votes. The Malays are the dominant ethnic majority in this country. They totally dominate the cabinet, parliament, police, judiciary, aristocracy, military, and government bureaucracy.

There is no reason for them to fear the non-Malays except that for the last 40 years, they have been taught to fear non-Malays by Umno.

Rich corrupt Malay Umnoputras are betting that the Malay masses will still support Umno's brand of racist, supremacist, corrupt, oppressive and divisive politics, robbing the rakyat of their rights.

Pakatan is betting that the Malays will want something better.

The question can only be answered by the Malays themselves when Umno starts its hardline racist rhetoric and racist incitement as leaders like Mahathir and others of his ilk battle inevitably with Abdullah for the Umno leadership.  

What then will Malay voters choose for Malaysia?

- Malaysiakini

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