I refer to the letter Stop Bashing UiTM.

Utar is an educational institution primarily made up of Chinese students. It is one of the last bastion where Chinese students from a less privileged background will be able to take up higher education courses. As such, I am shocked that up till this point in time, no one has taken it upon themselves to press for changes to its constitution that will prevent other races from being enrolled. Places are limited as it is and by opening it up to all, the Chinese will only end up losers.

No doubt in your mind, you will label me a racist after reading the first paragraph. Of course, I do not truly support such a notion. I merely said it to illustrate a point and if the writer of the above letter and those who share a similar mindset, do indeed label me a racist, as you can clearly see, the same argument doesn't seem to apply to them. Why?

Yes, one should not forget that the Malays are at an disadvantage economically. One should also not forget that there are many other non-Malays living in this country who are in a similar position. Poverty is colour-blind. The cause of this rather sad mindset?

I point an accusing finger at the government who embarked on a campaign to brainwash the population with a callous message: that being Malay is equivalent to being marginalised and poor. A lie repeated often enough will eventually be accepted as the truth.

Take my father for instance. Life was certainly no stroll in the park. Coming from a poor family with a fairly large number of children, he had to struggle through life. Meals were hard to come by and my grandparents could not afford to send him for higher education. However, for him, this was no excuse for failure. Instead he had a plan and he worked in a low-paying job and began saving.

Eventually, he had sufficient funds to enrol himself into a university abroad. Obviously, living abroad was a costly affair and his savings would not be sufficient for his entire course. Furthermore, he needed to support my grandparents as well as a few of his other siblings back home and to accomplish this, he found a job on the side. He graduated and returned back to Malaysia to earn a living and he is a succesful entrepreneur. In short, he started with nothing but, through hard work, perseverance and not forgetting a little bit of luck, he made himself into something.

I used my father as an example but there are many other people of many different races who have come up through in a similar way. As far as I am aware, they have no superhuman abilities. They are not psychic, neither do they have the power of foresight. So my question is, if they could make it through life under such conditions, why can't the rest of us? I personally feel that if you made it through life in a manner like this, where the odds always seem to be against you, you end up a stronger person.

After more than 20 years, the end result of affirmative action in this country has been truly pathetic. No doubt, there are Malays who have struck gold, and I do mean this literally. However, a vast majority of them originate from a very select group. I am sure the writer knows who they are since he himself said that ‘the economy is monopolised by certain people’.

Ironically, little has changed for the vast majority for whom these policies were formulated to assist. Do you honestly think that by persisting with this policy for another 20 or so more years things will change?

I will concede that today, if you were to live in the rural areas, certain skills like English perhaps, (a language that is utmost important in the business world) might be a more difficult to grasp. The writer mentioned that UITM prepares students by inculcating such skills through something akin to foundation courses.

Shouldn’t such skills have been taught much much earlier and not only in university? Any rational person will agree with this so why is it not something that is already being taught?

Well, you can thank our education policy for that which has been left in a state of neglect over the years. If you passed the syllabus we use to other more developed nations, you beter prepare a whole load of tissues because the reviewers will be laughing themselves to tears.

I believe that this in intentional on the part of the government, in the hope that the Malaysian population will continue to be ignorant of what is happening around them. To that end, they have undoubtedly succeeded.

And please, do not compare Malaysia to China. China did not get to where it is today through any affirmative action policies.