I am an ethnic Chinese Malaysian citizen. I can respect the honesty and sincerity behind Jaycee , New Malaysian and Non-Member's suggestion that the MCA leave BN.

Nevertheless their suggestions demonstrate a notable lack of understanding about the dynamics of race and politics in this country.

In a laissez-faire economy before the National Economic Policy, non-Malays were so successful that they were perceived to dominate the economy, academia and professional positions. Indeed the Malays were fearful of being overwhelmed by the non-Malays in every sphere of human endeavour.

I observe that many Chinese Malaysians today still do not realise the amount of fear and insecurity that their collective successes and achievements can generate in other ethnic communities.

The contrast in relative socio-economic achievements between different ethnic communities can cast doubt (and can instigate tremendous self-doubt) about the ability of less advanced ethnic communities to compete on a level playing field, and on the very value of their ethnic affiliations and practices.

Such fears and insecurities can rapidly transform into mass anger and resentment. It was not greed for more material things but blind fear born of racial anxieties, that turned to hatred in the heat of irresponsible inflammatory racial rhetoric that precipitated the tragedy and violence of May 13, 1969.

For many observers at the time, the primary event that started the tragic turn of events was the split of the MCA from Umno.

Although a seemingly benign and non-threatening event to outsiders, the MCA-Umno split was interpreted by some Malays as an attempt by the Chinese minority community to seek power outside of the historic bargain of the pre-Merdeka talks that recognised Malay special rights and privileges.

Although these fears seemed far-fetched, irrational or incomprehensible to the non-Malays, especially in light of the overwhelming majority of ethnic Malays in the huge government bureaucracy, civil service, police, armed forces, parliament and cabinet, subsequent events on May 13 showed that these fears were indeed felt deeply.

It is to me therefore unthinkable for the MCA to ever consider splitting from Umno. Any scholar of ethnic studies, Eastern or Western, will tell you that multi-ethnic coalitions of mono-ethnic political parties like BN are the most stable of all political arrangements in multiracial, multicultural countries like Malaysia.

Even though I am frustrated by the corrupt excesses of BN, I cannot advocate brinkmanship as suggested by Jaycee, New Malaysian and Non-Member as a viable option.

As an individual it does not matter what party I choose to vote whether PAS, DAP, Keadilan or Umno as long as the MCA remains allied to Umno in BN.

If Umno wins handsomely at the next elections, the role of the MCA within BN is unimportant. But if the MCA was not in BN, and Umno does poorly at the next elections, then this will be an opportunity too golden for any chauvinist or racial politician to miss, and I fear the ethnic minority communities will find themselves in the familiar role of being blamed yet again.

The dynamics of race and politics is complex, and I feel it is the duty of all Malaysian citizens to educate themselves to prevent a repeat of past follies.

Ethnic Groups in Conflict by David Horowitz from University California Press (1985, 2000) is both comprehensive and brilliant in its analysis, and is widely acknowledged as the most famous of all university texts on the subject. I would strongly recommend it to all malaysiakini surfers, and especially to Jaycee, New Malaysian and Non-Member.