The prime minister must be heartily congratulated for his soul-stirring speech at the recent Umno assembly. His priority to lead a corruption-free government should be highly lauded. His concern for the poor and needy is touching.

There are many Malays, other bumiputeras, and Indians who are very poor. In this land of plenty, many go hungry. It is indeed sad to read of such news in the papers. So this means our economic planing and strategies are not equitably and fairly implemented.

There is no fairness in distribution and acknowledgment. Take university places. Bumiputeras get 60 percent of the total places, Chinese 35 percent and Indians (and others) five percent. Whilst these allocations reflect more than fairly the two major races in terms of their population strength, the Indians are left out miserably compared to their population strength of 10 percent.

Besides this, their stake in the national wealth is only 1.5 percent and has been for many, many decades. The repeated calls by the MIC at every party annual assembly have fallen on deaf ears especially during the reign of Dr Mahathir Mohamad who largely got away by citing Ananda Krishnan (AK) as one of the richest men in Malaysia.

Actually this 1.5 percent belongs all to him. I am sure Pak Lah, being a highly spiritual and God- fearing man, will personally look into the problems of Indians as he tackles the Malays' problem seriously as well. He must earn his name as the man who eradicated poverty totally from the face of Malaysia.

And ironically, the Indians only take the lead in the jails where they make up 30 percent of the prisoners. They largely become gangsters upon leaving the fragmented estates and jobs are not available for them in the urban areas.

Many have red identity cards out of their sheer ignorance or apathy though they are born here. So Mr Prime Minister, help the poor Malays that you must not forget the poor Indians and others in the same category. God bless you.