I refer to the letter Let Machap be the first step .

I concur with Observer that we need to take the first step towards a truly integrated Malaysia. It is time that we not just merely hang around with thoughts of May 13 ever looming behind our heads, but move on towards a Malaysia that is competitive and able to withstand the globalisation onslaught that is slowly but surely coming.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim states that we, as a 'Highly Developed Country (HDI)' should benchmark ourselves against our contemporaries such as Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea who share similar histories and backgrounds. But our figures in terms of GDP per capita fail miserably in comparison to these countries. With FDI, we not only lose out to these countries, but have paled in comparison even to Indonesia!

On the education front, our Universiti Malaya (UM) dropped from 89th place to 169th in world rankings. The National University of Singapore (NUS) on the other hand is in the top 20 and one of the top three universities in Asia (World University Rankings).

While we continue to fiddle, Rome burns. It will be a sad tale of ruins. We will share the same fate of that historical city if the our politicians and leaders continue to fiddle and play their petty little racial games.

The enemy is not the minority races or the non-bumiputeras of Malaysia; it's the other countries in Asia who are quickly surpassing Malaysia on the economic front and taking in FDIs. We, meanwhile, continue to play racial games and insist upon NEP policies to our own detriment.

Perhaps, it is true. Machap can take the lead. Even if it doesn't, the rest of Malaysia must wake up to the slumbering economy and look beyond the slogans and rhetoric. We must look beyond race-based political parties.