I refer to Anonymous' letter regarding the issues surrounding Indians and the solutions proposed ([#1]Indians must make radical changes[/#], March 29). I read with great interest, the simplicity of the analysis and solutions put forward. I rebut thus:

1) Discarding our language - It is most unfortunate that the writer has chosen to ask us to discard our language as it apparently sounds uncouth.

I'm in an interesting position of having to defend a language that I don't speak well, being educated in a national school myself. I have the luxury of knowing enough to understand the language and find myself enjoying some of the intellectual debates that I come across on TV.

I can, from my personal, unbiased experience confirm that our language is beautiful and those fluent in it have access to a great amount of philosophy which has universal values. It is far from being uncouth when spoken properly. For those who cringe, cringe no more I say. You have no idea how interesting the language is.

As for speaking English in public and our own language only behind closed doors - I truly hope that there are not too many of us who suffer from such inferiority complex that forces us to do this. I must add that there is no hope of gaining any respect from the rest when we are so weak that we shy away from our own language.

2) Banning Tamil movies - this seems to be typical solution proposed by many parties, including respected NGO personalities. Having not done any quantitative analysis on the effects of Tamil films on our people, I can't really refute or agree with this.

I think it would be more fruitful to question whether it is an issue of too many films and not too many Tamil films. Too much TV is an unproductive way of spending our time and therefore this would contribute to the lack of self development.

3) Shutting down Tamil schools - I can't deny the fact that Tamil school students perform poorly in general. To suggest a total closure of Tamil schools will not solve the problem as the same students will continue to perform poorly in national schools.

The poor performance is due to a number of factors, not just one. Socio-economic condition of the families, de-motivated teachers (common among all, not just Tamil schools), lack of focus by the education department - especially for Tamil schools, lack of political will on the part of our leaders, lack of organising skills among the Indian community, etc. These are some of the reasons and they would not go away by closing Tamil schools.

I come from a small town school and I know that most (more than 95%) of all Indian students who studied with me were in the bottom classes. The situation was so bad that by Form 5, I was the only Indian in my Science 1 class, in which I topped.

So, I ask that nobody should have the illusion that closing Tamil schools will solve the issue at hand. It will, of course, delight the detractors who will love our unforced capitulation.

4) Finally, as for sending the Indians to English schools, I presume the writer actually meant national schools as I'm not aware of any fully-government-funded English schools.

I conclude that the proposed solutions do not address the issues and advise the writer to re-think his/her suggestions. A dose of pride seems to be necessary.