It was that time of the year again when leading corporations (herewith known as ABC Incs) take out full-page adverts in the papers and run advertisements on television, espousing a picture of harmony, unity and togetherness among Malaysians.

People will be talking about how nice the adverts were and so on at dinner parties and open houses. To me, these ads are nothing more than smoke screens and a lot of hogwash.

I have been quite amused, as I believe that many of the corporations which commission these adverts are the biggest culprits around when it comes to discriminatory practices in hiring and promotion.

I just cannot stomach anymore these television adverts which the ABC Incs spend tons of thousands of ringgit on to apparently portray a message that a multi-racial society is what we all should wish for besides giving us a so-called lesson in unity and diversity.

Please do not get me wrong; kudos to the ad agencies for a very well-outlined advert, but it is not proper for these ABC Incs to advertise in this manner.

Many companies in Malaysia stand out like a sore thumb for not giving at least a reasonable amount of equal opportunity to other races in their employment and business opportunities. Apparently some have tens of thousands of personnel working for them but what is their staff ratio in terms of ethnicity?

In the offices close to the president's and CEO's, what is the mix of employees?

Every year, during festivities, these ABC Incs comes out with the usual media hype about unity and how all races should live together. Who are they trying to teach when their record is one of the worst?

Just so that my position is clear, I think we should not tolerate any sort of discrimination. So how is it that those who practice this by either intention or default have the gall to come out with all these festive messages?

These days, youngsters are at pains to understand why a rich millionaire's son, whose house has about six luxury cars parked outside, still needs a scholarship to further his studies, when next door to him there is a very poor cousin (irrespective of race) who needs the scholarship more but is denied it due to a lack of 'connections'.

That is the type of problem haunting our youngsters. These issues need to be addressed before full unity is achieved.

We seem to reserve unity discussions for festive periods and the Merdeka month. But social progress cannot be achieved by just flying the flag or visiting each others house during festivities.

We must not tolerate hypocrites as they are one of the main reasons for the inequality in our society. I wish I could take the ABC Incs to court for misleading advertisements, but then that would be another story worthy of another write up.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity (and without any fancy ads) to wish all readers a sincere albeit belated Selamat Hari Deepavali and Selamat Hari Raya.