I have read a few comments pertaining to this special rights thing. It is enshrined in the constitution and there is no denying that. But is it necessary to invoke it so often?

Some of my best friends are Malays and I am equally comfortable in a Malay environment as I am in a Chinese environment. To make BlueRider see why there is so much sensitivity to this special right issue , let me share my personal experience.

I studied in a sekolah kebangsaan from standard one to standard six. I was basically the only Chinese in the class. My classmates never mistreated me. No racist thingy then and my respect to them. A few students got scholarships. How I admired them and hoped that I would get one too.

I studied hard and stayed in the top five of the school. Still no scholarship. I went to secondary school and became a top three student. I didn't get what I wanted. When I was in Form Four, out of 38 students in my class, only eight were Chinese, the rest were Malays. All 30 of them got one scholarship, some got even two.

What do they do with the money? Buying clothes for raya . Some of my Malay classmates were children of government officers, teachers even. Did they need this scholarship?

Compare this to my Chinese classmates' parents who were rubber tappers and such. My mother worked as a maid to support the family. My Chinese friends woke up at 5 am to help their parents tap rubber. To a teenager, how would you feel? That was my first taste of special rights.

After SPM results were announced, my Malay friends with much worse results went to universities. None of the Chinese classmates did. I guess that is special rights for you.

We went to Form Six and guess what? We started with about 120 students in Lower Six, with about 80 Malays and 40 Chinese. By June/July, we were down to 40 Chinese and two or three Malays. Where are the rest? In universities. Can you blame non-Malays for feeling disappointed?

What I do know is that with so-called special rights, Malaysia lost a lot of talented brains. Those well-off enough go overseas to study and stay there. The rest just make do. Some turn out to be big and successful businessmen. The rest may be on smaller scale but beside business, what can they do?

There is no place in the government for them? Look at our civil servants, how many are non-Malays? All the comments that there are not many non-Malay applicants are nonsense. A number of my non-Malay classmates applied but none was successful.

Special rights? Look at the level of service we get at public sector and that is special service for you. The best of the best gets slighted and what do we have left? Ponder over this point BlueRider and think whether the special rights did good or actually made matters worse.

To improve the Malays' lot, more have to be made to work in private companies where competition is real and what counts is your ability. If special rights only help Malays to become government servants, then all the more reason not to invoke special rights.