BlueRider has mischievously posed that the recent BN landslide victory to a yet one more victory for Malay special rights. It could have been educational and more value-enhancing instead, if the context made is a review of how the Malays have remained stagnant over the last four decades to still deserve this so-called special position for Malays under Article 153 of the Malaysian constitution.

As it goes, I would add one more point for BlueRider and the likes to ponder along. You will see that my clamour is for all Malaysians to be accorded special rights, just as the Malays have, in our march towards nation-building.

What is special in the special position (corrupted often as 'special rights') for the Malays under the Malaysian constitution is that the founding fathers, both national as well the British masters, paid special attention to the background the Malays compared to the other major races in Malaya at the time.

In addition to the economic backwater the Malays were then in, the other item of force at the time was the Malayan communists' renewed vigour for independence from Malaya from the British.

The Malayan communists were then associated very much with the likes of Chin Peng and were mostly Chinese, fortunately or unfortunately. The heart of the matter then was not just socio- economics.

Malay support was seen as vital for the success of countering the insurgency. Such were the times of the day leading towards the adoption of Article 153 in the Malaysian constitution.

To ensure amplification, and I suspect to also appear fair, the Reid Commission went on to itemise the proposed specialty: land alienation, employment in the government service and scholarships.

And the commission also went on to further make the agreement transparent enough by conditioning a shelf life for it - review within 15 years, i.e 1972. With and by this, it is clear the commission wanted no other interpretation to stymie the special position for the Malays.

Still, perhaps it is not that difficult at all to understand why many Malays like BlueRider have come to sensitise themselves with the special position to propel them through almost all strata of Malaysian life: - academic, business, political and social.

Malaysians have all seen how Hishammuddin, now the minister of education, bandied about this specialty and how it must not be trivialised.

Equally, it is also not that difficult to fathom the extent to which many non-Malays care to be ultra-touchy too, when it comes to the so-called Malays' special rights. More aptly, it is elusive indeed to the non-Malays the whys and wherefores that qualifies only the Malays for these rights when the exigencies and vagaries of life are both neutral and racially blind.

I am certain many Malaysians view this topic as a potential national flashpoint. To defuse it, the polarity in such thinking must be balanced.

I would go on to firstly correct the root cause of such views. Back to its birth place in the Malaysian parliament, Article 153 needs to be more openly and frequently discussed by each MP at scheduled intervals.

The parliament's speaker ought to facilitate a half an hour opinion period to which MPs are encouraged to debate the matter. The aim is to desensitise the topic of the Malay special position, and this can be achieved by talking out the defensiveness already ingrained in it, be that in the pro, con or neutral state of preference. Indeed, this would be a process of maturing our MPs.

With a matured Parliament, this parliamentary topic would openly migrate to kopi tiams , warungs and teh tarik stalls. The power dynamics from these venues will go a long way in helping us Malaysians to view each other as partners in nation building.

Indeed, a national will is needed to do and achieve just this.

BlueRider, in stating insistence for these so-called rights thus deserve all the support we can spare. As we shall see later, I suspect BlueRider is simply being terminally selfish, which one ought to be totally ashamed of.

For BlueRider and those of similar mindset, here is the basic sum of it all: if because of the economic constraints the Malays were once in, and also because of their strategic national building partnership at the time, special positions were accorded for the Malays, would you, in our present terms, agree that those in similar position now be equally accorded?

The crux for all of us is: if any one of us is accorded special privileges because of our inherent status, shouldn't we clamour for and extend similar privileges to our own citizens in similar straits?

Thus said, let the Malays have their special position as provided for under our constitution. What we additionally need to do is to work together to accord similar positions and, yes, rights, to those other deserving nationals in Malaysia.

The need to accord equal and similar rights to all other Malaysians, just as the Malays have theirs, should become our national duty. No need to clamour for the removal of special rights for the Malays.

Now, would BlueRider object?