I read LCH's letter Lies and deceit in RTM's chauvinist propaganda with utter disbelief. Can't people ever accept the truth?

I wish to point out several fallacies in the letter.

Concerning the assimilation going on in other countries, LCH said that "If there is any assimilation, it is mostly by choice. In countries like Thailand and Philippines, the assimilation by Indians and Chinese has been very natural."

This is exactly what a country practising assimilation would like to affirm — that they are not forcing anything, everything just happens "naturally". How did the writer arrive at this conclusion?

Has he or she really lived in any of these countries to know that the Chinese and Indians there chose to "assimilate" themselves or is this a result of their governments' policies? If there were Chinese and Indian schools in Thailand or the Philippines, would that have happened? Suffer the same fate as in Malaysia?

The writer claims that of all the minorities in the Philippines, only the Muslims insist on separation. The Muslims in the Southern Philippines, formerly known as the Sulu Sultanate, were never a "minority" where they live. Their plight is one for independence, first from the US colonialism, then from the Philippines government.

To claim that they are a minority that resists assimilation is like saying that the Tibetan "minority" in Tibet is "resisting assimilation" from the Chinese "majority". LCH is perhaps showing anti-Muslim sentiments by saying that of all Asean countries, only Indonesia (which is the only Muslim-majority country other than Malaysia) treats minorities harshly.

LCH also claims that the US is not actually practising assimilation by saying that "In the US, laws actually make it compulsory for schools to provide education in minority languages if there is enough demand and most Americans support them wholeheartedly, even participating in them."

As far as I know, schools in the US are only required to set up "language classes" for the minorities if there are enough demand, not teach all the subjects in those minority languages as in the SRJKs in Malaysia. Believe me, I have lived in three Western countries, and most of them still have some colonialist streak in them — the idea that the Western culture is better than other cultures still prevails.

The writer also claims that Singapore is actually tolerating and supporting the madrasah (religious schools). They are almost 100 percent funded by Singaporean Muslims and built on waqf (allocated for religious purposes) land that the Singaporean government always seems very interested to appropriate for itself, by the way.

The last time I heard of it, the Singaporean government was trying to get rid of the madrasah by imposing several years of education in "national" schools. Singapore is perhaps the only country in the world where more than 50 percent of its population cannot speak the national language (Malay). And let's not talk about other "dirty" things in Singapore, like fully-funded SAP schools and the difficulty to get jobs if you're Malay.

As far as I agree with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, there is one thing I disagree with: I believe that it is still time for us to realise that we were wrong in not practising assimilation, and that now is the time to rectify that mistake. Wasn't it Mahathir who modified the Constitution in 1996 to guarantee the existence of SRJKs in Malaysia? Big mistake! But it is not too late to change anything...yet.

Perhaps we should also implement the same education system as US where its treatment of minorities is said to be admirable by the writer. No government-funded Chinese schools, but if there is enough demand in any national school, we can set up Mandarin classes. Even Tagalog classes if there are enough students to attend them