I am a Chinese Malaysian who migrated to New Zealand four years ago. I love Malaysia and I remember my times in the 'kampung' in Seremban where we (Malays, Indians and Chinese) used to play football together.

We would travel to other districts and have a football matches against other teams who also had different races in their teams. I never saw my fellow players as a person of a different race or a different colour. We were a team! We enjoyed our wins and sulked together in our lost matches. At half-time we drank from the same bucket of 'leong fan' or lime juice arranged in advance from Ah Kau the hawker. That was in the 70s.

At 15, in 1976, I applied to join the Royal Military College (RMC). I was the school soccer captain, had excellent academic results and a distinction in Bahasa Malaysia (This was not common then). I was prepared to be soldier, to die for my country. However, I was rejected by RMC. I was too young to know the reason then.

I continued with my schooling at the same school, finished my Upper Six and was offered a BSc course in Universiti Malaya and also at University of Singapore. I chose the latter because that was the defining moment for me when I first felt the effect of the NEP policy.

To cut the story short, I lasted only one year in Singapore. I didn't like the lifestyle, having lived all the time in the 'kampung'. I came back to Malaysia, worked for two years and then left to study in London in 1984. I was working part-time in Kentucky Fried Chicken in Lewisham in 1986 when Alut, my Malay football teammate walked into the shop. I had not seen him for eight years and he told me he was looking for a place to stay.

I had a council flat, at nominal rent so I let the additional room to Alut, his wife Aini and son Shah Reza, who was two years old then. Alut did not come to London on a Mara scholarship, he had to work in Pizza Hut in the nights while Aini worked in Maybank in the mornings. They were a hardworking couple. Sometimes, when Aini was late, I looked after Shah Reza when Alut had to go to work.

We continued on living in the same flat for 18 months until they could afford a flat of their own. Sometimes we had dinner together or we did outings together and we stuck together as Malaysians. I never saw them as people of a different race or religion.

I finished my Masters in Law, and came back to Malaysia in the 90s. That's when I began to see all the segregation of the races and the true impact of the NEP policy. I see the insults hurled at the Chinese, the Kampung Medan riots blamed on the Indians, the numerous police abuses, the discriminatory practices of government departments and institutions, the corrupt ministers, etc.

Still I believed things would change for the better eventually. But for a decade, I saw the non-Malays being marginalised, MCA and MIC are no longer able to sit on the same table with Umno as equal partners. Umno dictates the terms and the MCA and MIC just follows them. Umno can make racist comments and need not apologise. That's when the moronic Hishammuddin Hussein Onn with his kris comes to mind. In which developed country is a political leader allowed to play racial politics and threaten another community with impunity?

Every day, I read the same comments about the situation in Malaysia, the non-Malays wishing for a Malaysian Malaysia. If you want the situation to change, do something about it. Why keep the racist Barisan Nasional in power? If you keep voting them in, you deserve what you are getting now. Stand up, exercise your voting rights. Give Keadilan and PAS a chance, you never know what they can do for the country especially with Anwar Ibrahim at the helm. My children are the third generation in my family having to go through this NEP crap, hence I decided to leave Malaysia.

I had a choice, I exercised it, I migrated for the simple reason that I don't feel safe anymore in Malaysia and I do not wish my children to undergo the discriminatory practices in Malaysia. In New Zealand, minorities like me are protected. I am free to say what I want, and everything is on merit. I have no complaints even though I miss Malaysia. Have a look at how Muslims (a minority) are treated here and maybe Malaysian authorities may learn how to treat its minority races better.

I yearn for the old days when my old football team existed without consideration of race, colour or religion. That said, I doubt Malaysia will be the same as in the 70s as long as the Barisan Nasional race-based parties are in power. So exercise your rights Malaysians, you have to take the risk of voting for an alternative government. I will definitely take my chance in voting a change for the better!