Benjamin Tan's criticism of Utusan Malaysia's Awang Selamat on the influx of Chinese nationals into Malaysia has failed to take into account the whole history of this country and its demography.

Tan knows full well that the Malay race comprises those who originated from the Malay archipelago, thus, the influx of the Indonesians into this country has a different dimension altogether.

The Indonesians, particularly those from Sumatra, are fully accepted because they can, being fellow Muslims, integrate and assimilate with the Malays soon after arrival. As a matter of fact, they are merely joining their fellow countrymen who had preceded them.

So also the (Muslim) Javanese and those from Indonesian Borneo, Celebes and those from islands such as Lombok, Ambon, etc. In fact, Muslims from India and China or elsewhere will also be looked upon with less suspicion. On the other hand, Indonesians who are not Muslims are kept at arms length like non-Muslim Indians and Chinese.

The Malays (as manifested by the worries expressed by Awang Selamat) are worried about this because it is they who are not in control of both upstream and downstream economies of their own country.

I can assure Tan that if the Malays are in full control of Malaysia's economy, they would be far more tolerant and accommodating towards everybody because in that situation they are not in fear of losing their identity and their religion, etc.

If you have economic power, you don't mind someone else wield the political power. The classic example is South Africa. The Afrikaners (and the Jews) would not mind handing over political power to the natives because by adjusting to the new environment, their control over the economy will continue. Better still, if they can behave as good citizens by helping the natives to share the economic cake.

The question is, apart from providing low-paying jobs, are the non-Malays helping the Malays to succeed in business such as giving the same credit lines or offering the same wholesale prices to the Malays.

What we see is that (due to ignorance and chauvinism) despite many non-Malays holding senior government positions especially in the scientific service, the non-Malays always thought they should help their own people because they can't get government jobs.

Finally, does Tan realise that Awang Selamat's newspaper employs quite a few non-Malays although they are under no obligation to do that. I would like to know whether our Chinese dailies employ (Mandarin-educated) Malays. There are thousands of them.