I refer to the comments by Baki Minuddin in his letter Malays still in third place and by Dr Jacob George in Uncertain new year for Indians .

It's a pity that after half a century of independence we still frame our socio-economic and political questions and judgements in ethnic terms. There seems to be a competition to determine which is the most underprivileged ethnic group in order to justify government assistance.

That's an exercise in futility. We can see that in the so-called 'unemployed Malay graduates' problem which Baki refers to. If truth be told, they are indeed unemployed. But by no means of the imagination can they be described as 'graduates'.

The system that produced them has lowered the bar so much in order to make up the numbers that they cannot be compared to the quality of graduates of the past or to graduates from other countries today. No wonder they cannot get jobs.

They should not have been in universities and colleges in the first place. They would have been better off under vocational or apprenticeship programmes. The Malay leadership of this country has failed them.

Yes, there are underprivileged groups but they span across all ethnic and religious lines. We can identify these groups by income and asset-testing and they exist in every ethnic group - Malay, Chinese, Indian, Pribumi, etc.

The enemy is not the 'other' ethnic group. It is the glass ceiling that prevents the best and brightest in our communities from contributing to Malaysia in their chosen area of expertise. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it's not Malays competing with Chinese or Indians. It's Malaysia competing against the best and brightest from China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and the tigers of Eastern Europe.

It does not matter if the Chinese are No 1 in business or Malays are No 1 in politics and civil service or Indians are No 1 in English journalism. Ultimately, what matters is that there are no glass ceilings for any individual who has the talent and ability to excel in the area of his or her choosing.

This means leveling the playing field and ensuring it is not based on ethnic criteria but on socio -economic disadvantages. We need to frame our policies based on merit and need, and not ethnic lines. However, this will never happen until we move our political system away from parties drawn along the old ethnic and religious lines.