Well, I think Alexis has , like others, read into my article what does not exist. Alexis exemplifies the very problem of many Malaysians, let alone Asian, students whom I teach - they haven't the ability to critically comprehend texts and sub-texts, to be genuinely creative intellectually, any more than they have the ability to read between the lines.

In taking a jingoistic line, Alexis puts up a straw-man. He accuses me of advocating a 'defeatist' position. The simple fact is that I've been playing the devil's advocate. I've been pointing out, in some detail, what a grassroots struggle-from-below within Malaysia's so-called opposition parties is up against vis--vis the entrenched Barisan Nasional, and the structures and institutions that are embedded to protect the dominant regime and its ruling class associates.

It's all very well for Alexis to knock political and economic theories that try to explain the intrinsic complexities of the problems Malaysian voters face, let alone the opposition parties. I suppose it was only a matter of time before degrees of anti-intellectualism from the likes of Alexis would have surfaced. Sadly, however, my critics offer nothing credible, albeit as practical, alternative strategies, in their bid to wrest state power from Barisan Nasional.

Instead, Alexis merely provides nice and huggy vocabulary that is nave; ie, for all Malaysians, irrespective of their race and class, to embrace one another as brothers and sisters. I find such rhetoric vacuous, facile and, worse, a-historical. It's all just talk. More hot air.

Alexis may herd his so-called rakyat to attend all the co-called opposition 'ceramah' sessions. But here's the thing, go to any country where Malaysians are studying and this is what you'll see, inevitably and shamefully - Chinese Malaysians mixing only with Chinese Malaysians; Indian Malaysians (if they cannot find ready acceptance among Chinese or Malay groupies) mixing among their own; and, of course, the Malays, although friendlier than the Chinese or Indians, also clinging to their own.

Like it or not, these folk are Malaysia's future generation of so-called decision-makers. If they behave abroad like Malaysians generally do back 'home', what potential credible changes does Alexis expect from this generation in the coming years?

Unless Alexis wants to spin out into denial, the problem lies in Malaysia's post-1948 history, including past and present generations of Malaysians whose attitudes of racial distinction and segregation, even of racial supremacy, or timidity and coercion, that have not fundamentally changed. Worse, all this has been fed systematically and systemically to much of the next generation of Malaysians.

There's also the failure of Malaysia's education system, which, by world standards, is almost totally farcical. And one can see the racial segregation at any one of Malaysia's universities, including Universiti Malaya, whose dastardly administrators, all political appointees, coerce students from engaging in political activity, much less their radicalisation by opposition parties. But Barisan Nasional, especially Umno, is free to co-opt students into its rank and file.

There's the utter failure of Malaysia's abominable New Economic Policy; viz. corruption and racial distinction, segregation and supremacy of one race over others. And the structures and institutions of oppressive state power a power that is centralised not in the Barisan Nasional but in Umno oversees this endemic, systemic, historical problem.

That's not all. Old and new Malay nationalist diehards are guardians of that power, backed by the predominantly Malay security forces. And, in the last two decades, Malay supremacy has been further anchored in albeit competing versions of Islamism, but Islam nonetheless. I repeat - Malaysians of all races had a chance to bring about real and fundamental change in 1998 when Anwar Ibrahim was sacked, arrested, physically and psychologically abused, humiliated and persecuted by the corrupt and deceitful Mahathir-Umno-Barisan Nasional regime.

It happened right under every Malaysian's nose. Except for the few pro-'reformasi' Malays, and, to be fair, just a handful of Chinese and Indians, no other Malaysians but nobody even so much as blinked. In fact, non-Malays I had interviewed at the time said this was an inherently Malay problem, that it should be left to the Malays to be fixed. 'Jangan campur,' I was told. 'Bahaya'.

Problem is, at least half of the Malays had also chosen a similar political apathy. Or else they were staunch Umno supporters. So where were the so-called rakyat? Like the opposition parties, the rakyat chose to turn a blind eye to another fundamental abuse of Malaysians' basic human rights by a highly corrupt and incompetent regime. They pretended that a bad problem in Malaysian politics wasn't about to worsen. Worsened it has. Who's fault is this? The so-called rakyat's.

In his or her 'dua' sen dribbling diatribe, Alexis has singularly failed to exhibit his or her much promised position that would 'rival and level' mine. Alexis' argument 'What matters is that there are people who care enough to read malaysiakini , attend DAP forums, read a PKR leaflet or eat a PAS mooncake' is laughable. It masks, if not ignores the historical and contemporary social, political and economic realities in Malaysia.

By what strategies will Alexis (and Umar Mukhtar and Nathaniel Tan ) bring all Malaysians together, irrespective of their race and class divisions, that will not only stand up to embedded Umno-Malay state power but will also, first, change the pusillanimous leadership of opposition parties towards greater political efficacy that would be seen as governing for 'all' Malaysians in fair representation?

Mind you, they'll have to do much more than invite the so-called rakyat to feast on mooncakes, nasi lemak and tosai.