Sim Kwang Yang's article entitled The young boy and the old lady is more moderate than some of the mail appearing in malaysiakini by both non-Malay and Malay writers. For every argument and opinion, there will always be a counter argument. Where all these will lead us, I don't know. People are always taking and highlighting the exceptions to justify their points of view. Likewise, generalisations are equally bad.

For every young boy and old lady of Kwang Yang's article, you can certainly find similar stories among the Malays and more so among the Indians. They all struggle to survive. True, the Chinese are hard-working and successful, just go to any shopping centre in Malaysia. Or any housing estate. What does that tell you?

But I see no law in Malaysia against success and hard work.

The Malays are lazy and dependant on government handouts? True, maybe for a few as it is also true that some Chinese are gangsters and wealthy due to ill-gotten gains. Are you telling me that there are no Chinese rent-seekers?

The majority of us work as best as we can for a good and honest livelihood. So there are bad Chinese as there are good Chinese. Likewise among the Malays and Indians. So we are all human beings. At least in Malaysia we can live and work if we choose to.

Hatred feeds on itself and eats you up. I find no such feelings when I buy and discuss features of the hand phones and lap tops from the Chinese boys/sales persons. Certainly I don't resent the fact that most of the shops are Chinese-owned. In fact I admire them for their success.