I refer to the letters, Article on Ceylonese not humiliating to Indians by LJ and Article on Ceylonese insensitive, pernicious by Professor P Ramasamy.

Suhaini Aznam, in my opinion, is a competent writer on the Indian Malaysian scene. I still keep a copy of her article in the Far Eastern Economic Review written in 1990 entitled 'Third in the race' describing the plight of the Indian Malaysians.

How she can refer to the Indian community as 'coolies' with a single stroke at the keyboard is unbelievable especially in the context of her in-depth knowledge of Indian Malaysian history.

Inasmuch as that may be, I would like to remind LJ that there were Jaffna Tamils who came to Malaya as coolies too. If he has read the article (I am surprised that they are not called Sri Lankans!), what is it (the content) if not a gripe about the fact that the Ceylonese Malaysians have been wrongly classified as Indian and that they have lost their former privileged position when the British were in Malaya.

And Param Cumaraswamy has the appalling impertinence to say that it is MIC leaders who did not want the so-called better educated Sri Lankan Tamils in the MIC. If this was so why were they invited to join the MIC in the first place?

As one who is from a South Asian heritage, I have observed Sri Lankan Tamils at close range in India, Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom and in Australia. They are the ones who claim exclusivity and this is a basic fact.

Ramasamy, I'm sure, must be aware that in 1948, when the Indian Tamils were disenfranchised in Sri Lanka, not one Jaffna Tamil raised a finger to assist the Indians. Again, in 1964, when the Srimavo-Shastri Pact was signed to repatriate the Indian Tamils - who have been living in Sri Lanka for generations - where were the Sri Lankan Tamils?