I am writing in response to Aizuddin Danian's letter (Meritocracy's merit, July 30). His point of argument deserves merit. However, the question is not so much of the necessity of maintaining or dissolving the quota system. The question is more on who said it and when he said it?

The fact that it came out from the mouth of the prime minister and at a time when students are turning their backs on him, makes his statement more politically motivated than genuinely enlightened. If it were the latter, Dr Mahathir Mohamad would have agreed with Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew not so long ago when Lee created controversy when he said the same thing regarding this issue. Instead, our powers that be had a field day lashing out at him.

We can do away with the quota system and not be surprised that the Malays will survive without financial help from the government. But there has to be a condition - all the Malay cronies of the prime minister, former finance minister and Umno, who have benefitted tremendously from government's 'affirmative action' contracts, must extend their ringgit Malaysia to all the bright and needy Malay students.

This is exactly what the Chinese Chamber of Commerce has done to aid the Chinese and they took it as a socially responsible and morally right thing to do. Did Halim Saad contribute to the education for the poor? 'Yayasan Saad', for one, is filled with Umno's elite children. The reality is that PM and Umno are more interested in milking away people's money to save the Malay cronies who stumble like a newly born calf at the first hit of economic turbulence.

MAS and Renong are two classic examples that require no further elaboration. If the PM truly wants to start clean on meritocracy, he should start with his own children first and see if they can survive.