I refer to FN's letter entitled Chinese M'sians must accept their lot . FN is expressing his own opinion on some unwelcome remark from a former foreign leader. Malaysia being a country with freedom of expression, it is his right.

However what would give FN's letter some weight would be some substance, as compared to his wind-like 'teh tarik' chatter. Can someone explain to me, a humble foreigner, who has been studying intriguing Malaysia at a distance, these few sentences of FN's:

'Malaysia's success in the international arena in both business and technology has no doubt become a threat to Singapore.'

W hat is this referring to? As much as I would love to see that, the only things I see are Malaysia's downgrade in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness report, while Singapore has Western Europe-like GDP per capita. Some example of firms shifting their headquarters, R&D facilities and factories from Singapore to Malaysia (not China) would help here.

'Not to forget, Chinese are only immigrants'.

Right. So are most Malays, I understand, who can trace back their origins to the Bugis, Minangkabau, and other peoples from Java and Sumatra. Just like the national language. Correct me if I am wrong but the 'original' people of Malaysia, as far as memory goes, are the Orang Asli and aboriginal tribes of Sabah and Sarawak.

'There are just not enough wealthy Malays in the country to bring about a balance in wealth distribution.'

This sentence is confounding. So to solve wealth distribution problems in this country, the solution is to create more rich Malays (by the way, how come we have shifted from bumiputera to Malay here?). Thanks for answering in a two-liner something which has had economics Nobel prize winners ponder over for decades. Forget about eliminating poverty, FN has found the solution - make some Malays richer! Never mind the poor, whatever their race. They seem irrelevant here.

'If the Chinese are able to have big houses and multiple cars, which most of the Malays do not have, why are they still not satisfied?'

Perhaps, the Chinese Malaysians, just like all other Malaysians, simply want some fairness?

'The MCA minister has brought great damage to the current system by asking for transparency.'

First time I hear of transparency bringing damage in a society. Please explain.

'The contractors who had been awarded government projects will not forgive this minister if they are being scrutinised stricter in future projects, especially when this result in them not being able to make profit out of the projects.'

If I remember correctly, the amounts implied something around 90% mark-up on top of a 'fair price'. If 90% does not allow for contractors to make a profit, then Malaysian contractors are either totally incompetent or something is missing from the equation here.

Dear FN, please help us understand your points with some verifiable facts. Unless you just wanted to ventilate some fantasies of yours, of course.