Capt Aziz lament at the attitudes of Malaysians comes as no surprise.

I faced some racism from certain elements in the United Kingdom while studying there in the 1970s and when I got back to Malaysia, I noticed the same Asian-on-Asian racism and prejudice by Malaysians against immigrants from neighbouring countries.

Agreed that there are illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes and are menacing but we can't tar all immigrants with the same brush.

When in Paris, I saw a certain division of labour with Africans and Algerians doing the more menial jobs but I also saw more signs of racial integration taking place such as perfectly white mothers with straight hair and daughters who have obvious African features.

Not to forget my Thai cousin who is happily married to a Frenchman and has two lovely daughters.

It seems that the process of integration and acceptance has made more progress here in France 30 years after the first initial waves of immigration than we in Malaysia have made in our 47 years of independence.

Our racism against immigrants is an extension of our racism against ourselves.