I have been following the debate over the university quotas. Now MIC is asking that Indians get a 10 percent set aside ('Ensure 10 percent university quota for Indians, urged MIC', May 20).

When discussing issues of equality it is important to distinguish between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.

I believe what is more fundamental is equality of opportunity.

I suspect that one reason why in most affirmative action programmes, such as university entrance, the focus has been on equality of outcome is that this is more easily measured. All programmes that have focused purely on the numerical outcome have shown the same problem however - merit loses out.

It is much harder to ensure equality of opportunity. That would mean that we would need to ensure that all Malaysians had the same educational opportunity starting from tadika (kindergarten) onwards.

It would mean ensuring that all schools had capable teachers and sufficient resources to ensure quality education in all subjects.

It would mean ensuring that financial and social barriers would be removed for all who had the capacity and interest for higher education. This needs much more investment and time to ensure it will work.

The idea behind the university quotas is not wrong. However, we need to acknowledge their limitations and find ways to eliminate these so that we can ensure that Malaysia benefits at maximum of its most important resource - her people.