I write this in response to Arbibi Ashoy's claim in his letter, 'Are Malays being punished?' (May 8), that bumiputras "will once again be only office boys, company drivers and factory workers" if the education quota is abolished.

By saying what he said, he is insulting the current capability of the Malays - many of whom have worked extremely hard to be where they are today. Affirmative action has created a mass of middle-class Malays. Now, most of them are parents with kids of their own. To suggest that they, being educated themselves, will not understand the value of education and, thus, not urge their children to study hard is not acceptable.

But the fact that affirmative action has created this mass of educated Malays also makes it important to remove the quota system before a complacent malaise sets in. Affirmative action, in any form or shape, was never meant to be permanent; the only question was, when the quota would be removed. And I say that time is now.

Competition breeds efficiency, a basic economic principle that, I believe, has been proven in the case of the Chinese community in respect to education. Such a principle will do well to improve the lot of the Malays as well.

Malay, Chinese, Indian or the 'infamous' lain-lain - no one is inherently more intelligent than the other. All that matters is how hard they work.

Removing the quota will make the Malays work harder, study smarter and achieve more because they know that they no longer have a safety net. The Chinese have been without a safety net for years and look at how well they have performed. I believe the Malays can do the same, if only their incentive not to work hard is removed.