Muhammad Abdullah in his article entitled ' Of 17-year-olds and Mkini's 'all-Chinese' readers ', highlights the attitude that a lot of people have towards us youth. Is it truly so hard to imagine that a 17-year-old could produce such a well-written specimen of work?

I guess it's much easier to believe that naturally no 17-year-old can do so, and thus it must be part of some elaborate ploy rather than a true display of intelligence. Maybe even aliens wrote the alleged piece. Oh, sorry, wait, Chinese aliens.

Nice to know that our elders have so much faith in us. Just for the record, Muhammad Abdullah, I'm 19 years old and an Indian. I'd much rather prefer to think of myself as a Malaysian though, but clearly such terms do not satisfy you.

As I am not so far gone from the days when I went through the same education system as the 17-year-old who was courageous enough to write his views (I sat for my SPM in 2001), I must admit that I fully support the points he made.

I agree that it is nothing short of amazing that a product of our education system could produce such an impeccable article. However it is but one article out of a grand total of one. How many other students, no matter how disgruntled, do you see expressing themselves in such a way?

And trust me, we are disgruntled. However most of us have learnt valuable lessons from our school years and know that the education system and the government does not tolerate any 'alternate' views. What they say is right, we must believe is right. What they say is wrong, God forbid that we say otherwise. It is the system in which we have been brought up.

All day and all night we hear leaders, politicians, teachers, and basically almost everyone tell us about how we should 'stand up and be counted' or 'express ourselves' and 'learn to analyse and interpret situations'. Yet despite that, when any of us does so, no one seems to accept it.

People like Muhammad Abdullah can't seem to realise that what is our opinion might not be their opinion, especially when the argument is well grounded in fact and presents itself in thorough detail - it is far easier to simply not believe it could possibly be true.

Furthermore, naturally, we fear the constant threat of being penalised for our actions, since we all know the government's stringent policy on dissident voices.

Since this is the case, maybe next time people should say 'Express yourself but make sure you express yourself in accordance to our narrow viewpoints and limited through process'. That way we would truly understand what you wish from us.

Still, I do concede, perhaps the education system, and people such as Muhammad Abdullah, have benefitted us greatly. At least both have shown us what we should to never be, or embody. Perhaps our generation can use that to change the system of stagnation that seems to be so glorified.

However, just as the disgruntled (albeit extremely talented) 17-year-old, all we can do is wait for our time to come.