The Chinese in Sarawak, like the rest of Malaysia, are caught between a rock and a hard place. Vote for Barisan Nasional and put up with racism, corruption and inefficiency. You will see your rights as a citizen being slowly whittled away.

Vote for the opposition and no development or maintenance funds for your area. Anyway, with all the gerrymandering, the Chinese votes can't make a significant dent on Umno's stranglehold on power.

So the Chinese bury their heads in the sand. They get busy earning money through legal as well as illegal means. Malaysian Chinese bookies and fake credit card syndicates are world-renowned. Some of our most capable brains end up in Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries. The more resourceful ones find Umno partners and go into big business. The rest of us mere mortals work our butts off to save money.

In psychology, it is called 'learned helplessness'.

While it is debatable whether the Chinese are still in control of the economy or not, there is no doubt that a small number of well-connected Chinese businessmen are among the wealthiest people in Malaysia.

However, the vast majority of the Chinese in Malaysia are in the lower middle class, the middle class and upper middle class. They are hawkers, peddlers, small traders, technicians, bank-tellers, farmers, teachers, engineers, doctors, etc. There are about seven million Chinese in Malaysia. Common sense will tell you that not all of them are wealthy.

The Chinese are fed up with the government but they really feel helpless because they have been cowed into submission. Nobody wants to get midnight visits from the Special Branch or spend a two-year sabbatical at Kamunting.

Fortunately, our traditional work ethics come to our rescue. We work hard to save money and send our children overseas and hope that they will have a better life there and be treated as first-class citizens.