I share many of the personal experiences of LCH who wrote the letter Bias against non-bumi top scorers since 70s .

I was born in 1971, just in time for the initiation of the NEP. My parents sent me to a Chinese primary school and needless to say, I met no Malay friends during those years. I then continued my secondary school education at the best national secondary schools.

To my surprise, the Chinese students were extremely competitive with no Malay students coming close to the top 10 in each form. Little did we realise that the best of the Malay students had been prepared in a parallel secondary school system (namely the boarding schools, the likes of Mara junior colleges etc).

Most of the Chinese top scorers mingled amongst themselves falsely assuming that the Malay students were inferior in attitude and scholastic abilities.

In 1989, I completed my SPM and was fortunate enough to be offered a Public Services Department scholarship. I was groomed for overseas tertiary education at a preparatory college in KL.

There were only about 50 non-bumiputera students out of the few hundred at that centre alone. We also learned that several bumi-only centres existed elsewhere in KL. These students had been handpicked to be the leaders of this beloved country at a young age and were segregated from the rest of common population (Chinese, Indian, Malay and what not) by putting them through Mara junior colleges and the like.

By some estimates, there were more than 10,000 government-sponsored students (by PSD and other government-linked corporations) in Western countries at that time and only about 150 to 200 of those were non-bumis.

Are there more qualified non-bumis for such government scholarships? Certainly. Can the non-bumis claim that we are consistently better-performing than our bumi colleagues? Not necessarily.

The Malay intellect amongst our students body frankly conceded that they had an unfair advantage. Kids from middle-class families (and urban) statistically performing better in schools regardless of race.

Do you then selectively prefer the urban Malay student and hold back the rest of the Malaysian population? The cream of the bumi community take advantage of government generosity and corner the entire resources of the country as their own.

Are these the majority of the bumi community? One would argue not.

These people are already competitive and they certainly do not need to be hand-fed. The rest of bumi community get handouts like Felda land etc. Isn't that saying that the entire NEP is a smokescreen for the rich and well-connected?

On the topic of vernacular schools, there is no basis that the Chinese schools proponents advocate segregation. But the government, through Mara, runs a parallel school system for their kin.

There is also no basis to say that vernacular schools are the root cause of racial disunity. One of the reasons why US is the most successful economy of the world lies in the fact that all immigrant communities contribute to the melting pot. This country promotes diversity for the well-being of all. It is not even legal to ask an employee if he or she is a white or non-white.

Until and unless key policy leaders do something about the current education follies (I bet most realise the inadequacy of the system), Malaysia is not going to leapfrog into the ranks of developed countries in the next 15 years.

Being a developed society does not mean having the tallest buildings, big airports or mega-shopping malls etc. It means having the right people to compete on the global stage. To be successful, Malaysia has to rid itself of old baggage and establish itself in markets that were once held by American, European or Japanese corporations.

Now, wouldn't that be more satisfying than trying to cut and distribute the Malaysian pie using muscleman tactics?