I agree with BlueRider in his letter Our special rights must remain that a hasty dismantling of the current system would most probably be disastrous to the fabric of socio-political environment in our country. But this is the only point in his (a baseless assumption of BlueRider's gender) letter that I agree with.

From the letter, he argued mainly in two directions. Firstly, since the non-bumiputeras are doing well, in fact, better than the bumiputeras, why not continue giving the bumiputeras special prerogatives at the expense of the non-bumiputeras? It is only a fair redistribution of 'endowments.'

Secondly, the affirmative action policy is the only thing keeping the peace of the country. Dismantling it for, and only, for the sake of international conformity is foolish since it is beneficial to all Malaysians.

Both of these are highly debatable propositions (if not downright ignorant). Firstly, the perspective should not be on since the non-bumiputeras are doing well, hence they should help the bumiputeras.

The question should be if the current system does not exist, would the non-bumiputeras be doing better? And if they do, would it adversely affect the bumiputeras or would it benefit the bumiputeras, i.e, would it be beneficial to all?

To put in a different way, is the current system imposing an artificial constraint on all Malaysians towards achieving greater progress and welfare? The second question we should ask is whether a gradual dismantling of the system would be disastrous to the peace of the country or would the continuation of the system serve to further segregate the races in the country, hence detrimental to the peace of the country in the long run?

For the first question, it is almost certain that a removal of the policy would generally benefit the non-bumiputeras. The crucial point is, would the bumiputeras be adversely affected? For this, I believe the answer is no, at least not if the dismantling of the system is done gradually and systematically.

The fear that the bumiputeras will lose out seems to stem from the assumption that this is all a zero-sum game. If non-bumiputeras gain, the bumiputeras will lose. This is a very misleading assumption.

Progress for part of a community will most of the time spill-over onto the rest of the community. Furthermore, under the current system, it is generally accepted that complacency plagues the bumiputeras. This is inevitable as the current system generates a great amount of moral hazards. Hence, putting everyone on a level-playing field will benefit all.

Secondly, to claim that the non-bumiputeras want to remove the special rights of the bumiputeras solely as an act to conform with international standards is a dire fallacy. The affirmative action policy was instrumental in ensuring the peace of the country 30 years ago, but continuing under such a system will inevitably cause a further racial divide.

It is very hard not to prevent this when racial discrimination is constitutional. The very fact that BlueRider used the term 'our' in his letter title suggests that there is a clear divide.

I would love to provide an example (say, the current education system, especially at the tertiary level) to illustrate my points, but it will be too lengthy a letter and most of the critical readers of malaysiakini already know the situation well.

Bangsa Malaysia? Bah, humbug!