I refer to the letter If you love your partner you'll convert . Norlinda doesn't seem to be aware of the contradictions in her letter. For example, she says, 'Malaysians will always be of different people and cultures. Don't try to make it boring by eliminating our rich culture'. And then she says 'If you are not willing to convert to your spouses' religion, then you do not love that person enough'.

Ye Gods! Doesn't insisting that one person convert amount to eliminating that person's religion? And eliminating a person's religion chucks out a huge part of his/her culture as well! Why should one party have to make all the sacrifices while the other remains status quo? But this is just par for the course in sunny Malaysia, isn't it? What can I say?

Norlinda, you and many others who may have received all kinds of biased views throughout your lifetime, have failed to develop a healthy scepticism, to do a critical evaluation of whatever platitudes are dished out to us daily by the mass media and certain institutions, ahem.

Malaysia is often painted by our government - or the ruling-party-component-owned mass media - as a stirring example of racial harmony, prosperous and stable. Really? Let's see how other countries measure up. An example, Finland has two major language groups - the Finnish-speaking and the Swedish-speaking (6% of population). How did they solve their 'national unity' problem arising from this source of potential conflict?

Was everybody 'forced' to learn Swedish or 'forced' to learn Finnish? Who 'won' - the larger or more aggressive group? Maybe the Swedish- speaking group triumphed because Finland's big next door neighbour is Sweden itself?

Nah, none of the above. Sorry, Umno-ristas; the answer is: the Swedish-speaking Finns must learn Finnish while the Finnish-speaking Finns must learn Swedish. Got it? This is part of a de- politicised education reform that has been put into place in the last 30 years in Finland.

The results of such rational basis for decision-making?

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland ranks Finland's the most competitive economy in the world.

Yale and Columbia universities rank the nations of the world in a 'sustainability index' that measures a country's ability to 'protect the natural environment over the next several decades'. Finland is first in the rankings.

Statistics kept by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development show that Finland invests more of its gross domestic product in research and development than any country but Sweden.

Finnish 15-year-olds score first in the industrial world on comparative tests of their academic abilities.

According to a global survey by Transparency International, Finland is perceived as the least corrupt country in the world. (The US is tied for 17th.)

Finns read newspapers and take books out of libraries at rates as high or higher than all other countries.

Finland trains more musicians, per capita, than any other country.

In comparison, Malaysia grimly pursues a mythical 'Malaysian race', clings slavishly to a 50- year-old 'social contract' made between just-de-colonised races giving perpetual privileges to one group in exchange for citizenship for the others, whereas the 1946 UN Charter states that citizenship is a basic right, ie, not something that can be traded.

Then the Malaysian ruling elites bans any rational discussion on this on the basis that it is seditious even when the threats of violence are all coming from the primary beneficiary of such policies.

The result? Malaysia's racial unity is a myth at best, based on one race's ability to control nearly all the major levers of power while others are intimidated into acquiescence and collaboration by staged demonstrations, threatening words and actions. Thus the other races generally keep mum, concentrate on working hard and making sure their children do well academically.

Their hard work, thrift and diligent study results inevitably in their lifting up their socio-economic levels. As a consequence, the ruling race says: 'See! Our people are still lagging behind so the policies must continue!"

Thus it continues. Even when one is Oxford-trained, one spouts like an idiot when in Malaysia. Is it the climate or the cuisine that is so infernally hot that it fries the little grey cells? Of course, the ruling race has vastly benefitted, with thousands of professionals in every sphere - good for them. But if benefits were based purely on economic need wouldn't many more Malaysians from all races have benefitted?