The letter from Lim Pek Soon ( Awaiting liberty from racism ) misses the point. Liberty is not delivered but has to be worked for. For us to work on it together, across racial lines, a conducive atmosphere for trust must be based on facts, principles and correct conclusion.

Writers to malaysiakini must be held to higher standards when making conclusions. Take again Jared's letter . The policeman is obviously wrong, but it is equally wrong to make the conclusion the government practises institutionalised racism. "The policeman made a racial slur, the policeman work for a government institution, ergo, the government practises institutionalised racism".

This reasoning is lame. The acid test should be whether the management promote or condone the practice. If so, say so but it should not based on an individual's act. To move forward together, we must not make sweeping statements. For example, if Ms Lim were to slur me racially, my fight will be with her and not any Chinese.

The grouses of perception as second-class citizens, linking protest with not flying flag and patriotism, phrases like voting with the feet, etc; these are unpleasant phrases to us "dead-ender" who have nowhere else to go, nor the means to do that, and have to work to make this country a better place to live. In fact, making sweeping conclusions give rise to the 'us-versus-them' mentality among Malaysians.

If we were to work together, we must learn to make more precise statements. Contrast the statements below as they get more precise:

"Chinese are greedy"

"Chinese developer Txxx is greedy"

"(Chinese) developer Txxx is greedy, because it colludes with the state government to take forest reserve".

The more sweeping the statement we make, the less room it is for discussion nor resolution. As the statement gets more precise, there is more room for discussion, alliance and solution.

Sweeping allegations are not going to get my sympathies. They just poison the air with the very people, both inside and outside the government, who have the power to change for the better. To change for the better, we need to reach out to allies across racial lines who have common interest. To change, we must identify the small changes needed and do improvements little by little.

In this case, precision would help frame the problem into a proper perspective and solution:

"The government practises institutionalised racism"

"The government agency (police) practises institutionalised racism"

"The government agency (police) practises institutionalised racism, because one of its employees made a racial slur."

Together, we must learn to make statements of the third type. Only then can we identify problem, find allies and put things right in our country.