Much has been said about the evils of Ketuanan Melayu and its comparison with apartheid.

However, I feel that Ketuanan Melayu, while racist in implementation under the previous administration (and grudgingly continued by the present one), was not meant to be racist at all in the mind of its makers, Onn Jaafar and Abdul Razak Hussein.

Ketuanan Melayu simply means that the Malays, the indigenous peoples of Malaysia (that means the original group of tribes who lived here before the arrival of the Chinese, Indians and Europeans) should form the main component of Malaysian identity in all fields of life.

Fair enough. In a family where there is an elder sibling and a younger sibling, the elder sibling is given a little bit more than the younger sibling. However, what has happened in the case of Malaysia over the last 25 years is that, the elder sibling has been given far too much of the country's wealth than the younger sibling, and the younger sibling feels bullied.

What is worse is that, among the indigenous peoples, there is a lot of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few. The leaders of Umno Youth try to hide this from the natives and whip up racial sentiments, claiming that the non-indigenous people still hold the lion's share of the country's wealth. As a result, the non-natives feel intimidated in their own country.

Ketuanan Melayu can still be achieved within the framework of meritocracy, and the late Datuk Onn and Razak were never against meritocracy. Razak supported affirmative action only on the condition that the economy was strong and redistribution of wealth was possible.

Perhaps a progressive approach towards Ketuanan Melayu can be done. That is, allow for full meritocracy, and abolish quotas (even in the civil service and defence forces) but give marginal discounts to all indigenous people in everything. At the end of the day, this will result in diligent and disciplined indigenous peoples excelling in life.

In terms of culture, strike a balance between indigenous culture on the one side, and Chinese and Indian cultures on the other. This will result in a balance between the Malays and the Borneo natives (together 50 percent) and the Chinese and Indians (together 50 percent), in shaping the nation's future.

Malays and Borneo natives should be made to learn the customs and culture of the Chinese and Indians in schools and vice-versa. And all must be made to master English 1119 as well as SPM Bahasa Malaysia. All Malaysians should be taught the history of all communities in Malaysia.

Malays and Borneo natives must be made to realise that the ancestors of the Chinese and Indians had always been their friends and arrived on Malaysian shores, not to make money or grab land, but to survive and give their children a better life through sheer hard work. The bulk of Chinese and Indians in Malaysia are descended from poor and destitute peasants and refugees from China and India.

The Chinese and Indians should be made to realise that the Malays and Borneo natives are truly indigenous to this country, and are not descendants of pirates and marauders from Indonesia, as British propaganda had claimed. They should realise that Malays, Chinese, Indians and Borneo natives had been good friends for centuries, and traded peacefully since the days of the old Johor Empire.