In a country struggling to heal its racial and religious divide, Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman's discriminating statement concerning the increase in the population of "effeminate male students" in local universities, is very disturbing indeed.

As minister for national unity and social development, she has gone against the principles of her own ministry and the government in general.

While the majority of Malaysians are working hard to discard their differences and build upon their similarities, statement such as this tend to inflict new wounds and cause disharmony among us.

Highlighting the differences of each individual and segregating them based on their physical appearance and behaviour is part of a wider spectrum of discrimination, which consists of other variables such as race, religion, gender, sexuality and social class.

A country on the verge of being a developed nation should have abandoned this archaic mentality long ago.

Due to the history of our nation itself, perhaps it is not surprising to observe that discrimination is still a prominent feature in our society. In the years before Independence, the British practised a 'divide and rule' policy in Malaya.

However, after independence from Britain, communal politics began to take over. Although we have been governed by a coalition of ethnic-based political parties for more than four decades, most of us still maintain a certain degree of discriminatory view towards one another.

We should not turn a blind eye to this fact. On the contrary, we should accept that discrimination occurs at all levels of our society. Being truthful to ourselves will help us come to terms with our own prejudices and allow us to concentrate on building our society based on shared values.

Fortunately, with the increase in internet access by Malaysians yearly, more people are joining open discussions in chat rooms, bulletin boards and forums. By sharing opinions and suggestions, people from various cultures will be able to learn more about others and more importantly about their own faults.

The task of national integration is undoubtedly going to be difficult and long. But judging by the participation of people on the Internet, we are at least moving towards the right direction.

Therefore I view with trepidation Dr Siti Zaharah's conclusion that "the country may have to face serious social implications in the future unless something is done to counter the gender disparity in institutions of higher learning." (reported in The Star on July 12, 2003)

She also suggested that the emergence of effeminate males in our institutions of higher learning is caused by the increase in the number of female students compared to male.

Just when we thought the government has finally realized that meritocracy should be the basis of admission into our universities, the minister introduced another possible stumbling block for young Malaysians seeking better education.

So now, in addition to filling the blanks on gender, age, race and religion in university admission forms, we might have to add another column for 'physical behaviour' to help authorities correct the "imbalance" between masculine male and effeminate male students.

Or perhaps we should include this particular detail in our new identification card (MyKad), which has an embedded 32 KB microchip, for easier reference.

The main aim of institutions of higher learning is to produce knowledgeable graduates capable of contributing to the nation in various fields. Nobody, including the minister, should judge this capability based on any criteria other than merit.

Education is not a privilege, but a right of every citizen irrespective of age, gender, race, religion, social class and physical behaviour.

The government plans to make Malaysia the centre of educational excellence in this region. Instead of concerning themselves with issues of gender imbalance and selective behavioural discrimination, they should shift their attention to other more pressing problems.

Are we addressing the problem of imbalance between the number of seats for science courses and art courses? Is the Education Ministry looking into the problem of imbalance between high quality graduates and graduates who barely manage to scrape through the grades?

What about the difference between students who manage to get places in universities based solely on their merit, and those who get in merely because of privilege and circumstance?

If we continue to label, catalogue and segregate people based on their physical attributes, beliefs and behaviour, we are no better off than the regime of years gone by such as the Nazis in Germany or Pol Pot in Cambodia.

The only difference is that those older regime exterminate their people to achieve their goal, whereas we exterminate the will power of hard working Malaysians to contribute to the nation.