I laud QG Rosario's call not to blame Malays and Islam for the social disparity in the country but his misconception is alarming and betrays his prejudice.

Do any direct polling and you will find that an overwhelming majority of non-Malays and non-Muslims do not blame the problems on Malays and Islam. Instead, they are likely to blame the politicians for twisting the facts to appear so.

Since independence, the non-Malays and non-Muslims have recognised the need to bring all ethnic groups into the mainstream of economic and social activities.

During independence, even though the Malays were no longer the majority in this country and especially with the inclusion of Sarawak and Sabah, Barisan Nasional and Umno were recognised as the ultimate leader in this country. If the Malays have decided not to give citizenship to the non-bumiputra, not only would peaceful independence fail, it is also likely Sarawak and Sabah would not have been part of Malaysia today.

Since independence, the non-Malays and non-Muslims have shown nothing but tolerance in erosion of their rights as citizens in the name of peaceful coexistence and even pure logic. From the extension of the New Economic Plan to National Development Policy, educational rights in schools especially in Sarawak and Sabah, private property rights, etc, there have been nothing but understanding and tolerance...perhaps too much.

To blame the non-Malay mercantile class for the ills of this country is just reverse logic. Do you blame the doctor for not preventing the patient from getting ill? If you are not in charge, are you to be blamed when things go wrong?

Honest, well-intention non-Malay political leaders of yesteryears have time and again tried to do the right thing and each time, they have been sidelined and pushed out. Even within Umno, people like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein Onn and Onn Bin Jaffar could not hold on to power and their vision.

To say that non-Malays have had strong biases against the Malays is to misconstrue the whole picture. Even uneducated generations of yesteryears like my grandparents/aunts and uncles while calling the Malays lazy and stupid, made friends with them, worked side by side with them, converted to Islam and encouraged them to improve themselves through education and self-reliance.

What is most alarming about Rosario is that he believes that the ills of this country could be rectified by changing certain perceptions. How naive can that be? In the end it's correct policies and strong institutions that will see any country through. You could be as racist and evil as the Nazis, but without strong practical policies and institutions, everything will go down the drain sooner or later.