I write in response to Abdul Hadi Ali's letter, Malay language for 'Malayland'. Allow me first to commend the writer on his decent command of English. Yes, English. How ironic that this champion of the Malay language who advocates that no other language shall be taught in this country chooses to write his pathetic views in the language of the British masters.

While I am sure that this is not a view shared by the silent majority of Malays, I am somewhat disturbed that in this day and age, one still can find such a backward thinking individual who oozes fanaticism.

At this age of globalization, it really is time Malaysians stop bickering about their own versions of history, the 'social contract', special rights and what not. Let's face the cold hard facts. This country would not be where it is today without the contributions of any one of the three races.

Yes, the Malays were the first to populate the land. Yes, the Chinese and the Indians were brought by the British as settlers. But that was a long time ago. Every Malay, Chinese and Indian child born in Malaysia today knows no other home country.

We are citizens of Malaysia, and we are tourists in India and China. We feel our fathers have all contributed equally to build this country up, and we sure don't understand why we are treated different in our quest to take this country to greater heights.

The time really has come to leave race based politics and policies behind, and compete as one unified country in today's world, or we risk falling back in the race, only to argue about vernacular education, special rights, university intake, etc.

Abdul Hadi's letter merely shows us how far we really are from Vision 2020, if it is achievable in the first place!