First, a 17-year-old grouses , then a 35-year-old (17 + 18) muses . I hope a 54-year-old (17 + 18 + 19) is given his turn.

Age does not make me any wiser than the 17- and 35-year-olds. But I do have the vantage point of having lived through, and have recollection of the Queen's coronation in 1953, Merdeka in 1957, the war with Chin Peng, May 13, 1969 and the reign of all five prime ministers.

I am from the minority community, born and grew up in a small town, went to a vernacular primary school, spent one extra year of preparation through remove class in a mission school and finishing in what was, until that time, the only university in the country.

I remember well my father's Malay colleagues in the mining company where he worked visited our home freely, eating our food. The mission schools had a good mix of students from all communities. One of my closest friend in school was a Malay (the word bumiputra had not been invented). We used to roam around town after school, play guitar and sports together.

While I went to local university he was sent to Indonesia. In his own words to me he accepted the fact that he could not get a place in the local university. Equally, it never occurred to anybody then to question his need for assistance from the government in order to have a better future.

The situations were accepted without the slightest sense of deprivation by either side. He did not feel let down by not getting a place in the local university while I felt he deserved to be helped. Such understanding came from close bonding formed while growing up together in school. I understand his poor family background well. He went on to a successful career.

After May 13 1969, Malaysia is no longer the same. I remember the events clearly. May 10 was a Saturday, the election day. That day I took a train from my home town to Kuala Lumpur to begin university. Sunday May 11, election results were announced with the BN suffering the worst defeat it has experienced. Monday May 12 was my registration day at university. Tuesday May 13, there was a victory parade by some opposition supporters in KL. That evening news came that riot broke out and curfew was imposed.

Many of us were caught out and stranded in the Pantai Valley campus. Over the following several days, students of all races lived peacefully with totally no regard to events occuring outside. Life went on, the days were spent playing games and chatting away. The education we received in the schools of those days prepared us well. We were completely at ease in the midst of such situation. While in university residential college (hostel), like most boarders in those days, I had a Malay roommate. We never had any problems.

To us, the word 'polarisation' was a scientific term for describing a characteristic of light. Up until the New Economic Policy arrived, it was taken for granted that we are but one people living in this land. A few years after May 13, the NEP was introduced.

By joining two separate words, ' bumi ' and ' putra ', the people on this "bumi" were divided into two separate worlds.

The NEP has done well. Between 1970 and 1990, the bumiputra ownership of share capital rose almost ten fold, from 2.4 per cent to 20.3 per cent. The Chinese share almost doubled, while the Indian share fell by a small percentage. (Malaysian human rights report 1998, Kuala Lumpur: Vinlin Press )

But in the process, education has suffered. In the early 1970s, Malay students with Higher School Certificate (the present STPM) who failed to gain places in the professional courses were put through an extra one-year pre-engineeering or pre-medicine classes to help prepare them.

Soon this extra preparation was discontinued by simply recruiting them directly into the courses through the use of quota. Still later, matriculation courses were introduced which cut one year off their preparation for university and put them into classes with those who come through after two years of STPM. When they cannot cope with the rigorous demand of the course, passing mark has to be lowered.

Now instead of spending extra time and effort in preparing weaker students before admitting them to university, we have to run post-graduation training to prepare our graduates for employment.

Our politicians are now reviewing the education system. It will do well for them to look back in order to look forward.

Past policy has made tremendous progress in balancing wealth among the communities but we have lost much of the social cohesion and drop in the academic standing of our education system.

Compared to the 17- and 35-year-olds, I believe I had a much fuller school life. My generation look back at our school experience with much fondness, while the present cohort of 17-year-olds look back with derision. Let us hope that there will be a better tomorrow for our nation.