I read with great interests the letter by Michael and Zafer on life comparisons. Well, Zafer, for all you have said, special rights are for the equitable share of bumiputera wealth. The opportunities are also there for the cronies who have enriched themselves tremendously.

The kampung people remain poor. They continue to eke out a living farming rice and fishing. They are kept shackled by their religion with their lives resigned to fate. That's why we have the opposition PAS. Getting their support means there has been a failure to equally share wealth among the Malays.

Giant corporations have been nationalised decades ago at the taxpayers' expense by companies such as the Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB). Unit trusts were set up to the exclusion of other races except bumiputeras.

And now we have bumiputeras who are more equal than others. I know that the bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak are not equal to those in the peninsula.

Why is it that after 47 years of independence we need to perpetuate these special rights for special people? Why are these rights entrenched in the fabric of life to the extent we have seen an exodus of other races to foreign countries? And no one is to question such rights less they get thrown into jail.

In Canada, we experience the best there is in life. Every citizen has equal rights. Malaysians and Bruneians who are here lead quiet and contented lives. For Bruneian Chinese who are not allowed to own properties or land at home, this is their utopia. They have done well in every aspect of life.

One Bruneian I know who grew up in poverty and emigrated here in the 70s with C$500 in his pocket is today a hard-nosed millionaire in the refrigerated transport business in Alberta. He is recognised as one of the top entrepreneurs of the decade. Hard work and diligence got him there.

Whilst he is an exception, I may add that most lower middle-class Malaysian citizens and professionals are the main bulk of immigrants to countries abroad. They need to get settled first and have a few contacts to start life anew.

To expect them to be millionaires in businesses will take a generation or more and we are beginning to see that now. If they had not emigrated, they would have been hard pressed to send their children abroad and everybody knows the quota system for universities, jobs, job promotions and opportunities back home.

I do not wish to echo what Michael has said for Australia as the conditions are much the same in Canada. It is an offence to utter racial slurs and to have racial profiling. We are all Canadians.

We now have a first-generation immigrant Chinese woman as Canada's governor-general and also had a Chinese immigrant governor in British Columbia a few years ago. That shows that Canadians recognise good talent and good administrators are not based on race.

The children of Malaysian families here including mine have attained success in their studies and in their professional lives. Our grandchildren need not ask why there are special privileges accorded to some races and why they cannot get into universities or attain government jobs.

Racial equality is the norm in everyday life here whereas it is the norm to expect special privileges and status in Malaysia.

In business here we have no quotas, public companies can be formed without special allocations, businesses can tender for projects without needing connections.

We have never experienced any racial discrimination in any form whatsoever the many years I have been in Canada. A Vietnamese sushi chef here I know was once a refugee at Pulau Betong. He, like many others, I know has prospered and his children have all gone through university.

Malaysia's loss of talent to other countries is the result of the pervasive special rights now entrenched in the constitution.

It was meant to last for 25 years to allow - in the words of the first prime minister - "the Malays to catch up with the Chinese". It is now 47 years later.

In foreign countries such as Canada, it is the majority that has to take care of minority rights be it the gays, the natives, the women and whatever groups there are. We pay heavy taxes but these go for the poor and low-income people irrespective of race, colour or creed.

So Zafer, you may keep your rights and perpetuate them. Such things are archaic. Who loses in the end? Your country, which should have been a first world one by today.