It's really ridiculous of Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra and K Das to concoct a tall tale in the so-called Tunku Tapes (published in part by malaysiakini) that Dr Mahathir Mohamad suffers from an inferiority complex due to his part-Indian-(Kerala Muslim)-part-Malay heritage.

Many Malays in high places have Indian blood. Are they all suffering from an inferiority complex? How is that possible when India, with 8,000 years of history, is one of the oldest existing civilisations in the world today and with many great contributions to the development of human thought?

Even China, another great civilisation with 4,000 years of recorded history, traces many of her philosophies, religions and arts to India.

Did the Tunku himself suffer from an inferiority complex since he was part Thai from his mother's side? The Tunku was simply being bitter because Mahathir was instrumental in forcing him out of the premier's chair.

Many Malays, in fact, leapt with joy in the kampungs when the Tunku was replaced by Tun Abdul Razak Hussein who, by the way, is part Bugis and part Dutch. So let's not flaunt this Malay thing too far.

After all, even as late as the early 1900s, 80 percent of the so-called Malays in the peninsula were in fact immigrants from Java, Sumatra and other islands in Indonesia. Please refer to Origins of Malay Nationalism by Prof William Roff.

We must not also forget that Malaya was in fact artificially carved out from the Thai kingdom by the British colonials through the two Anglo-Siamese wars. Otherwise, Thailand would today have extended all the way to Singapore as it did when Parameswara of Palembang fled to Tumasik (Old Singapore) and murdered the crown prince of Thailand who was ruling there on behalf of his father.

Also, as pointed out by Roff and many other historians, the concept of Malay nationalism was created by the Jawi Peranakan in Singapore and not the Malays.

This community comprises the descendants of Keralite Muslim men, local Malay women and also pure Keralite Muslims. They started the first Malay press and newspapers in Singapore. Other publications include Utusan Melayu and Utusan Malaysia.

In short, it should come as no surprise that a person of Keralite Muslim origin should today be the prime minister of Malaysia. No community has fought harder and for so long, for Malay nationalism, as the Kerala Muslims.

Overall, we should be thinking of our common humanity instead of making a big deal out of our differences. How important are these differences anyway? Can any of us claim to have the absolute truth with him? Shouldn't we be seeing ourselves, despite our differences, as being engaged in a journey together towards the absolute truth?