I would like to reply to the writer of Indians should stop their whining .

First of all, the strength and cogency of a letter or argument does not rest on whether the writer uses a pseudonym or not. There are many reasons a writer may choose a pseudonym over his real identity, especially so in our country where the archaic ISA still rules and where the government saw it fit to unleash the full force of the police on a defenceless group of people marching to present roses to the prime minister!

Allow me now to counter some of the points the writer presented in his letter from the perspective of a true blue Malaysian who unfortunately, or fortunately some may argue, falls into the category of community commonly referred to as pendatang and who as a result, has to work and study extra hard in order to compete with the ‘sons of the soil’ who enjoy various privileges by virtue of the fact that their ancestors stepped their foot earlier on this land.

The question of whether the Indian community is doing enough to uplift themselves and the systematic discrimination in this country are two separate issues that should be addressed differently. Is he saying that the Indians deserve the discrimination just because there is a high percentage of single parent families? Is he saying that they deserve discrimination because of the high divorce rate and the consequent negative effect in the raising of their children?

Has it ever occurred to him that one of the reasons behind the high divorce rate and single parent families is the fact that the Indians have been denied their fair share of the economic pie through the systematic discrimination practised in this country?

Let me quote a few statements from his letter in which he asked about:

• the extent of self-help in the Indian community, instead of a perpetual dependence on government largesse and handouts and;

• what the rich Indian Malaysians are doing to help the less fortunate Indians

Now let me throw the question back to him and ask why the privileged community (no prizes for guessing who!) in the country can’t do the same and end the discriminatory NEP altogether? Why can’t they increase the extent of self-help in their community instead of perpetually relying on the government to give them the privilege of a 30% mandatory share in everything under the sun and five to10% housing discounts and other privileges too numerous to mention?

I would also like to ask what the rich ‘sons of the soil’ are doing to help their less fortunate brethren. Well, apparently they are not doing that much, otherwise their less fortunate folks wouldn’t have to continue to insist on handouts and largesse from the government!

Discrimination in any form should be abolished – more so if it is institutionalised - and I support and applaud what Hindraf is doing to draw attention to the plight of the Indian community.

If the NEP had lived up to its original intent of eradicating poverty without regard to race, Hindraf wouldn’t even exist now. It is imperative for the government to change its policies and help the poor irrespective of race. To do otherwise would be to continue down the path of discontent and destruction.