While I agree to an extent with the contents of Sherrida's letter to malaysiakini, I do not think that the special rights are beyond the reach of Malays or bumiputeras who are outside Umno.

Umno was never in Sabah or Sarawak until Usno and Berjaya got married and became Umno Sabah in 1991. Umno is still an alien to Sarawak. Natives of Sabah and Sarawak were not denied special rights, at least not those who voted for the Barisan Nasional.

Likewise with the natives of West Malaysia. The vast majority of Malays in West Malaysia are not members of Umno, and yet they have been given special rights. The question of not benefitting from these special rights therefore does not occur.

All Malays and bumiputeras have benefitted from special rights. The real problem which Malays and bumiputeras face is that some benefitted more than others from these special rights. There is an unequal distribution of special rights.

Special rights were not implemented based on know-how but on 'know who', particularly under the leadership of the fourth Malaysian prime minister. Those who vote for Barisan Nasional are pampered to the brim. Those who vote for PAS are punished.

Those who are part of the prime minister's camp are pampered to the brim. But the moment they oppose him, they are considered less than non-bumiputeras, undeserving of special rights and even the right to vote.

Natives of Borneo, such as myself, see their special rights in the form of scholarships slashed if the ruling Barisan Nasional parties of Sabah or Sarawak do not see eye to eye with the Umno boss. This happened when the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) ruled Sabah between 1985 and 1994.

It is also not true that the non-bumiputeras, namely the Indians and the Chinese, did not benefit from the giving of the special rights to the Malays.

The share of Chinese-Indian wealth rose from 28 percent in 1971 (the original year of the New Economic Policy) to 45 percent in 1990, the last year of the NEP.

Just as Malay and bumiputera wealth rose from three per cent in 1971 to 30 percent in 1990, non-Malay wealth also went up.

But it is also not true that racism against non-bumiputeras did not occur. The special rights were mis-implemented, under the fourth prime minister, to the detriment of both the Malays and non-Malays.

Those Malays who voted for Umno were pampered and mollycoddled and allowed to get away with murder. They were also allowed to rob quite a bit of what was due to the Chinese and Indians.

Under the fourth prime minister, quotas for non-Malays in everything, which stood at 40 percent (30 percent for Chinese and 10 percent for Indians) under previous leaders, were reduced, at least unofficially.

It is also not true that only rich non-Malays were robbed of their wealth as a result of mis-implementation of the Malay special rights. Many low income non-Malays also lost what was due to them. Witness the appropriation of Chinese schools and new village land by Umno-dominated state governments.

In some cases, non-bumiputeras from the ruling parties robbed Malays of their special rights, but these cases are less common than Umno robbing non-Malays of their rights.

It is true that Gerakan has robbed lots of Malay native reservations in Penang which it rules. But Gerakan would never do this without the tacit approval of Umno.

Thus, the real killer of special rights to deserving Malays is Umno.

The MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the PPP are all powerless unless Umno moves. They can make noise from time to time to appear as champions of the non-Malays. But at the end of the day, they always regard the Umno boss as king.

On another point in Sherrida's letter, I do not agree that non-Umno Malays cannot practise their religion freely. What Umno is doing now is curbing religious extremism by Muslims.

Umno believes in modernist and progressive Islam, what the Prophet Muhammad truly brought to the world.

While Umno is corrupted and has distorted Islam to justify corruption and autocracy (the ISA and OSA), it is better than having Anwar Ibrahim (who once was pro-PAS just like his friend Sanusi Junid) and PAS, a team of religious extremists, in power.

Islam Hadhari is not a fake Islam. Islam Hadhari means the progressive Islam of the Quran and Sunnah. Umno believes in an Islam that liberates women, promotes modernity and progress and opposes outdated customs that poison the mind.

The successor to the fourth prime minister, the son of a respected progressive ulama, is doing his best to promote a middle path interpretation of Islam which worships neither Western extremism nor Eastern religious extremism.

There is no future in the Barisan Alternatif simply because Keadilan and PAS are led by leaders who are extremists. The moderates in these two parties are not powerful and are just tools of the extremists - just as the moderates in the Barisan Nasional were tools of the extremists who dominated the ruling coalition during the fourth premier's time.

Barisan Nasional's moderates are more powerful within their parties compared to the moderates in Barisan Alternatif.

So long as Barisan Alternatif does not have a strong moderate presence, Barisan Nasional shall remain the choice of most Malaysians to form the cabinet and appoint the prime minister.

We can and we should fight the corruption among Barisan Nasional politicians which has gotten worse over the last 22 years. But this cannot be achieved by using the Barisan Alternatif.

The only way to fight the Barisan Nasional is to form a new, democratic, secular Malaysian party which practises internal democracy and stands up for the downtrodden regardless of race and religion.

This new party should uphold genuine Malay and bumiputera special rights based on the Merdeka social contract agreed upon by the original idealistic leaders of Umno, MCA and MIC.