Strangely, I have to strongly agree and disagree with Ronnie Liu , with regard to the history of the MCA and its 'betrayal' of the Chinese community, the Chinese education movement, etc.

I agree with Ronnie's argument that Umno, MCA and the MIC were created by the British because this was the only formula in order to perpetuate their strategic and commercial interests in Malaya. This is quite obvious. No colonial power would just leave their plantations, mines and trading houses, unless they are forced to do it like in Indonesia, Kenya or Vietnam.

But I would totally disagree with Liu's argument that due to the 'betrayal' of the MCA, the Chinese community and Chinese education have suffered in the last 50 years. One must be quite naive to agree with Lee Kuan Yew that all these years, the Umno-led BN government has been systematically marginalising the Chinese and other non-Malays. What is true this is what has actually happened to the Malays and Malay education in Singapore.

For instance, will LKY allow the Malays - or even the Indians - to form their own political parties and then join the PAP to form a coalition government rather than this Chinese-dominated PAP government where the position of the Malays are worse than the Indians?

I have always blamed Umno for not helping our Malay brethren in Singapore by insisting on a Lebanese formula in the government set up when Singapore was to be kicked out of Malaysia in 1965. Thus, since 1965, has there been another Malay president or a Malay senior minister, let alone deputy prime minister, defence minister or foreign minister in Singapore? I guess the only prominent Malay in Singapore now is the portrait on the Singapore dollar.

In so far as the Chinese in Malaysia are concerned, the DAP, by now, should have dissolved itself and joined Gerakan because the DAP has already achieved everything it was fighting for beyond any imagination. For instance, in terms of economic achievement, who is leading Malaysia's richest persons list?

As for education, Liu should go to the newsstands to see for himself whether the Chinese newspapers and periodicals are showing any signs of decline. Can Liu also tell me whether all the Chinese dialects - Cantonese, Hokkien, Toechew, Hakka, etc, in addition to Mandarin, are dying in Malaysia?

On the other hand, the Malays themselves, over the years, have become what I call language spastics. They can't speak their own (good quality) Bahasa Malaysia and at the same time indulge in trash English.