I disagree with much of what written in the letter 'Why deny Malay political supremacy?' by Brian D'Cruz. The letter by Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad is indeed forthright, but to commend him for being cogent?

Let me first rebut some of the D'Cruz arguments.

Firstly he said: "It cannot be denied that Malaysia, in this day and age, is a Muslim-majority country. Which means that political power in Malaysia will continue to rest with the Malay-Muslim majority, given Malaysia's first-past-the-post electoral system - which is pretty similar to countries like the US, Australia, the UK and most of the European Union."

The fact is that the Muslim-majority will choose a Muslim leader (even if he/she is a poor leader) because they are afraid that their rights as a practising Muslim would be undermined should a non-Muslim be elected to lead the country. Since when has the non-Muslim community earned this kind of distrust?

No leader, whether a Muslim or non-Muslim, has any right to undermine anyone's religious beliefs. Do not believe that only a Muslim leader is allowed or has the power to protect the religious rights of a Muslim.

If you do, then please ask if the Muslims in the United Kingdom or the United States are prohibited or undermined from practising their faith openly. Such a narrow-minded approach to defend the election of a Muslim leader is surely unwarranted and shows a lack of respect (to say the least) to Malaysians of other faiths.

The next paragraph (of the letter) said:

"There is no point in talking about what the MCA has 'given away', assuming it had anything to give away in the first place. Ditto, to a much smaller extent, for the MIC. That's the way the modern political game is played in 'democracies' everywhere. You only have to look at the shenanigans in the US Republican and Democrat parties or in Britain's Labour and Conservative parties to realise this."

In my previous letter 'Islamic states assertion divisive', I have already said that our current system of 'power-sharing' was not founded by our forefathers as a charity case to non-Muslim parties. It was meant to prove that Malaysians from different ethnic backgrounds and beliefs were willing to compromise for the good of the country.

MCA really has much to 'give away' because MCA was formed to protect the rights of the Chinese community just as much as Umno was formed to protect Malay rights. The Chinese community is supposed to live in harmony and to work together with other races as equals, and not to serve any majority race. How would you feel if Umno did the same as what MCA is doing today?

To defend a discriminatory act with a similar act - giving examples of how political parties in the US and UK operate - is totally inappropriate. Does it mean that it is acceptable for us to use unfair and discriminatory tactics so long as they are used in the US and UK political scene?

Speaking of the 'modern political game', I would have assumed that politicians today should be more educated, and socially and morally more aware of the way communities work.

The next few lines:

"I wonder why people like Bhatia and Quek have chosen not to take a critical look at a country like Singapore. Singapore's leaders have gone on record to say that it is unthinkable that the country's Chinese majority would willingly give away their political power."

Obviously I cannot answer for them, but in my opinion, we criticise the present government's policies because we are Malaysians who care for our country's future political, economical, and social development. We love and care for our country, Malaysia and not for Singapore. We should leave criticising Singapore to the Singaporeans, don't you think?

And the letter concluded with:

"Much of Singapore's attraction as a hub of investment and technology is precisely based on the 'Chinese-ness' of the place. A refreshing change, although not spelt out in so many words, from the corruption, uncertainty and instability of its Muslim neighbours - read any analysis in Singapore's Straits Times and Business Times. I wonder why Singapore can be praised for something like this, whereas while Malaysia tries to assert the concept of Malay political supremacy, all sorts of critics surface to carp and condemn."

The answer to that is because the kind of political, ethnic and religious discrimination practised in our country is simply not right and unfair, regardless of which other country is praised for their discriminatory acts.

We should live by our own moral standards and not by others. We want to see the culture of 'Malaysian-ness' not Malay-ness, Chinese-ness, Indian-ness, Muslim-ness or Christian-ness.

And it is a portion of the Malay community that wishes to assert the concept of Malay political supremacy, not every Malay. As a Malaysian, I wish to see equal power-sharing and equal rights for every single Malaysian.

If and when that happens, no one will need to worry about Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc, supremacy because everyone will have the right to vote for their desired political party without oppression.

It is through these letters that I am beginning to understand and learn how other Malaysians feel and think about the political, racial and religious issues in Malaysia. It saddens me to see that there are actually so many Malaysian writers with such a racist and biased mentality.