I am really surprised at the sense of inadequacy and inferiority implied in Arbibi Ashoy's letter 'Are Malays being punished?' (May 8). There are many Malays who are capable and can compete against the best in the country.

Why does he think that the Malays will become office boys, company drivers and factory workers in a free competition against the other races? The heart surgeon who operated on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's bypass is a Malay. Yet there are those who give Malays a bad image and doing a disservice to their own race by depicting them as inferior and incapable.

I hope the Malays, including Umno, will join in and condemn this attitude. If this is typical of the attitude bred by the New Economic Policy (NEP), then we should do away with it because it has become an opium of the Malays.