"Throw away the crutches" screamed the headlines in the New Straits Times (July 30) referring to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Havard Club dinner speech message recently. It is interesting to note Mahathir's analogy of Malay privileges to crutches.

The word 'crutches' brings immediately to mind pain, suffering, disability, injury, and even disadvantages. It is usually associated with the negative. If one is recovering from an injury or suffers a permanent disability, one would have no choice but to use some form of aid, such as crutches to move from one place to another.

A person using these aids would be seen as a person with a disability be it permanent or temporary. But for, the disability and the crutches, such a person would have been able to move at the same pace as a person with no disability, which is of course obvious.

However, the use of the anology of crutches by Mahathir seems to imply that the benefit and privileges that the bumiputra have been enjoying since the implemention of the New Economic Policy have only resulted in hampering the bumiputra.

It also implies that the non-disabled bumiputra who are actually normal, with no disabilities, have somehow taken to using the crutches of bumiputra privileges even though they have never needed them in the first place.

Picture this: A perfectly able man is given a set of crutches by a friend who somehow thinks that it will help this man move faster. The able man is convinced by his friend's explanations and decides to use the crutches even though he has actually no need for them, mainly because he thinks that by using the crutches given to him, it will indeed improve his mobility.

Alas, he actually moves much slower by using the crutches but the irony is, he doesn't realise this but instead continues to use the crutches because he is constantly reminded that he needs the crutches and that without them, he will not be able to catch up and hence, lose out. And he actually believes this.

It doesn't make sense? Well, the use of the anology of crutches by Mahathir certainly doesn't make sense to me for the same reason that the story above may not make sense to you. I have always believed that it is necessary for assistance to be given to only those who are in need.

The economic pie should be enjoyed by all Malaysians rather than a section of society; all for the greater good of the country whether it be for greater wealth or to maintain peace and stability.

It is just not prudent to single out a whole section of society based on race or religion and to thrust "crutches" to them and say "use these as they will help you move faster". The result would be disastrous.

What is important is not to give out crutches or to convince a perfectly able person that he needs crutches but instead educate and teach a person how to move just as fast as or faster than any other person.

As they say, give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.