I am surprised by the comment from Dr Avicenna regarding the lack of overt racism in the UK.

Working in the UK as a postman in for the past three years, my job in the working class hierarchy gives one a unique perspective. You deal with everyone from every strata of the society as people, no matter who they are, still need their mail delivered daily.

Racism in UK does exist but its impact on your life depends on several 'katak di bawah tempurung' factors.

1. Occupational 'tempurung'. If you are a doctor working in the UK, there would be less exposure to racism because you are higher in your society's class. This also applies to high wage- earning professionals too.

This is simply because, the higher you are, the more educated your peers and the less likely you are to be harassed racially. Patients coming for treatment would also treat you with respect as obviously your skills are highly sought after. Respectability is the name of the game.

However, if you clean toilets and pick vegetables, you are in a different world of pain and 'sakit hati'. Abuse is a norm and if not for UK's rock solid, anti-harassment legal foundation, I believe it would be worse. If they can get away with it, they will do it.

Some Malaysian professionals I know work in a 'tempurung' state, mixing with only their British peers, gliding in Mercs and BMWs to Mark & Spencers and living in posh Cotswold bungalow isolated from reality.

They should get out of the 'tempurung' and see for themselves life outside. I am lucky as people have no choice but to smile at me every morning as 'Postman Pat' get out of the 'tempurung' to deliver their social security cheques, pension slips and utility bills.

2. Geographical 'tempurung'. Believe it or not, racial harassment actually depends on which region you live in in the UK. A higher incidence would occur in predominantly white areas such as the South West, Home Counties, North East and Northern Ireland.

Other regions like London that have a greater racial exposure have an 'acceptance' attitude for different races. I agree with Hantuimc about Belfast in Northern Ireland as I have numerous friends living there as undergrads, post-grads and doctors.

If you are a doctor working in Queens University or City Hospital, you are in your 'tempurung' but the moment you walk outside, the reality is starkly different. The verbal abuses along Donegal Road are de rigueur because white Protestant or Catholic extremists and racists do not see you in your crisp white doctor overcoat and stethoscope.

Add unemployment and resentment and they see you as a coloured person, possibly an asylum seeker out to wreck havoc on the British system and suck the Chancellor of Exchequers' coffers dry.

If you ever walk the back lanes in areas like Easton in Bristol or Smethwick in Birmingham, you'll find it's even worse as racial slurs come not from the whites but from the coloured to the coloured.

Mix these factors with post-Sept 11 mentality of Britain being in a state of 'war' against 'terrorism' and compound it with the bane of being uneducated and you have some segments of society - especially the lower working class - treating all non-white as Muslims from Pakistan to be bashed.

It doesn't matter if you're Malay, Filipino or Chinese for that matter. In the wake of asylum seekers flooding the country, the war on terrorism and the influx of people from EU succession countries like Poland, we (the non-whites) are the ultimate scapegoats.

The lower you go down the rungs of society, the more prevalent racism is. How else do you explain the rise and acceptance of polarising political parties such as British National Party (BNP) and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)?