In these areas, you are going to lose if you are moderate and not passionate, radical and extreme in their cause. The fella who has it more extreme gets the better over you. Thus the reason, put simply, why Harapan under Mahathir, is fighting an uphill battle against the onslaught of PAS-UMNO combo.

And just to be clear, PAS is the main player here; UMNO is just a sidekick being used for PAS greater purpose. What Harapan has morphed into is a great disappointment to many supporters who wanted to really see a new Malaysia, freed from the shackle of racism, religious bigotry and corruption. Mahathir is only focusing on corruption, specifically in bringing Najib down. It is clear he has a personal axe to grind with Najib, but that’s okay considering what an idiot Najib was.

And here is the thing – Mahathir never said he was going to go soft on racism and religious bigotry. He merely said he wanted to get Najib jailed for being a theft, a kleptocrat. The reformers within Harapan actually are the ones that gave the impression of a new Malaysia – everyone to be treated equally at least in term of poverty and basic rights. Mahathir was an extremist as we know he was. He was kicked out from UMNO by Tunku exactly because of that.

The reason why we accepted that Mahathir can be PM of the Harapan government because he said that he realised his past mistake. But when he got the PM post, cracks began to appear – Jakim was still there and so was BTN, his old legacy of religious and racial extremism. Democratic politics is based on popular agenda and policy. Race and religion are popular. Trump won the American mind and dream because there are more American who wanted a great America that is not bogged down by poor immigrants and minorities, and allies.

In Malaysia, race and religion sell. They are wrong because extremism would mean at the expense of the right of others. In order to go around this, they come out with the ketuanan doctrine – race supremacy. There is no race supremacy in our Malaysian constitution. Eradication of poverty and illiteracy, yes, but not supremacy. People, however, like to equate affirmative action as race supremacy, and of course that sells. Mahathir just could not get out of his old self.

Given space and time, he would revert to his old self. That’s why the more important aspect of Harapan agenda of putting food on the table, the economy, idiot, was overlooked as they want to compete with PAS on who are the more radical and extreme on the issue of race and religion.

COMMENT | I am glad political analyst Wong Chin Huat finally belled the cat. He makes three important points. The first is that the Umno/PAS union should not be underestimated. The second that new voters – especially young voters – are the wild cards, and the most important third point, “moderation” is an ultimately self-defeating strategy.