I refer to the letter Let's talk about 'Ketuanan Bukan Melayu' for a bit.

Reading this letter, Ifeel deeply disturbed by the following paragraph.

‘...We here have of course, heard of cases where non-Malay officers were sidelined for promotion in the government sector but surely this is also true in the private sector where the Malays are the victims and sometimes this has nothing to do with race but is simply politics, despotism, etc.’

With the recent brouhaha about Ketuanan Melayu, it's interesting to see how politicians jump onto this bandwagon to make gains for themselves and to score political points. However, politicians score points at whose expense?

Now everyone, including myself, will jump on this bandwagon to make a statement. Well, what can I say? This is democracy.

What exactly is Ketuanan Melayu? Frankly, I don't care if it is was born out of Umno in the early 80s. I only want to know that justice and equality are properly accorded to everyone living in this country.

Ketuanan Melayu is nothing but a rallying cry to the uninformed masses to either ‘work for you, or against you’ depending on which side you are on politically. For the laymen, in all practicality, let us see what this concept has gotten us after 51 years.

One of the obvious results of Ketuanan Melayu is the ‘on and off’ statements from Umno politicians who regard themselves as ‘masters of the land’. They are daring enough to even publicly call non-Malays ‘immigrants’ who should leave Malaysia they were unhappy.

I would agree that my granddad and great grandfather were immigrants. But how is it Umno has the galls to call us non-Malay citizens ‘immigrants’? By the way, Malays are also not the true sons of the soil.

Ketuanan Melayu has also bred the notion that every single opportunity must be handed on a silver platter to Malays. The non-Malays will have to go find some other ways. Why? Because non-Malays supposedly control the economy therefore the non-Malays do not need help.

This applies to the abused NEP implementation to outright manipulation of the tertiary education quota. Since when does Ketuanan Melayu give the right to discriminate against your own citizens to the extent of being apartheid-like?

Now, there are even calls to impose Ketuanan Melayu in the private sector via quotas. This brings me back to the above letter. No doubt there are cases of Malays being sidelined in the private sector.

But this is certainly not isolated to involve Malays only. To see this thought penned out by the writer is most disheartening. But the good side of it is that there is acknowledgment that non-Malays are sidelined in the government service and vice versa in the private sector.

The major difference is to note that private businesses are set up to make profits. Generally, performers are rewarded. In the private sector, I do acknowledge there are tiffs that result in a performer being sidelined.

But make no mistake. It's not your race that caused you to be sidelined. There are no issues for a Malay to head a private enterprise. There are no issues for a Malay to be in higher management in the private sector. But what about the PKNS issue ?

At the end of the day, I note there's always a tit for tat. With the issue of Ketuanan Melayu being brought up again, I don't see an end to it.

Ultimately, only equality for all Malaysians will only do away with this type of unnecessary debate.