I refer to the Malaysiakini report School in a shoplot .

Yes I sympathise with these children of Burmese decent but let us look at the situation in our own 'home' country.

The Bagan Pinang state election was held in Negeri Sembilan recently and in that constituency all the five Tamil schools are not fully-aided government schools after 52 years of independence!

And Bagan Pinang has been part of the parliamentary seat held by the MIC for decades. In fact, the Likut Tamil school there is also renting a shop lot as a school and the rental for the shop lot is paid for via donations collected by the Parent-Teachers Association from the community and well-wishers.

Only recently has it received a one-hectare plot of land from the government for a school building to be ready in 12 months.

I have seen even seen Tamil schools without water supply. I wish that the media would highlight the situation at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pulau Gaya, off Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

The vast majority of the schoolchildren in that school - which probably has more than 1,000 kids - are the children of illegal immigrants.

They receive free text books and they also keep getting more teachers as the student population of the school increases. And I can tell you there are also schools in Sabah that actually look like goat sheds with children walking barefoot to school.

As a government servant who was transferred to Sabah, my children were not eligible for free text books. And for the Health Department forms, my children were to be placed under the ‘Lain-lain’ category along with the children of the illegal immigrants.

All because the Health Department form format for Sabah did not have a column for 'Indians’. And this is supposed to be a ‘1Malaysia’ we are talking about, aren’t we?