I read with interest Suguna Papachan's assertion that non-Malays have not been politically recognised as true citizens. It has been accepted as fact that non-Malay Malaysians cannot expect to have equal rights in the foreseeable future, so long as the Malays demand special treatment and rights.

It is obvious that for any country to truly progress as a nation, the rights of any one group cannot be put above others through discrimination. If poverty is an issue, surely it is in the country's best interest to work to eradicate it regardless of race, religion or creed for the good of its people?

The racially prejudiced system perpetuated in Malaysia for the last 30 or so years is now being put under the microscope. It has produced Malay entrepreneurs who can only compete in 'protected competition'. The programme has failed after three decades but what does this say of it?

A great and proud race cannot be engineered through handouts, affirmative action and political hegemony. It is from the spirit within. And Malay Malaysians have not willed themselves to face competition and challenges in true spirit for the last 30 years, thus setting them back even more.

As for Ajmel Hafiz's assertion and that Malays were scoring 12 to 13 A1s for SPM and going to Ivy League and other top-notch universities in UK and Australia, I wonder what the fuss then is all about for a quota?

Malay Malaysians who have the calibre would make it to the Ivy League universities anyway so what's the big deal? No quota system in Malaysia is going to enable more to qualify for places in these universities.

Perhaps Amjel would like to enlighten us all by revealing the statistics he has on the number of Malay Malaysians studying and graduating from the so-called top-notch universities, especially Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology?