I find The tiger, dragon and Malaysia's future written by Leaves of Economic Grass an excellent and insightful piece.. It is refreshing and nice to note that there are like-minded people concerned on articulating the same issues that one is deeply concerned with.

Let me add a few points to what Leaves of Economic Grass has written, albeit from a different perspective. I have traveled to China half-a-dozen times and on countless occasions to India.

What strikes an outsider squarely in the face repeatedly in both these countries is the presence of a huge, huge pool of highly-intelligent and capable youngsters and the very low wages they are paid to do the jobs they are doing in their respective countries.

The first question that comes to ones mind then is:'What is going to happen to Malaysian youngsters when the time comes for them to compete against these hordes of super-capable beings in a globalised environment' And one then literally feels a little shudder going through one's body.

In 20 years time, the world will be a very different place. And so will Malaysia. For starters, the country will have an increased population of about 40 million people against the present 25 million. And 75 percent of the population will be bumiputeras.

I believe Chinese Malaysians, as a people, will be able to adapt successfully to the huge changes storming our way, as they have always been able to. As for the Indian Malaysians except for a 20 percent segment of the middle class - they will be pushed into an even bigger pit of poverty and marginalisation.

That 20 percent of Indian Malaysians, I believe, will evolve into a more capable and self-reliant group, just as capable as the Chinese Malaysians would be then.

But in 20 years time the crunch of the onslaught by China, India and the rest of the world would have its biggest effect on the majority bumiputera population. Despite the overzealous implementation of the NEP for the past 34 years, it is an undoubted fact that the vast majority of bumiputeras cannot cut it if left on their own.

Despite all the money and effort that has been poured in by the government towards making them self-reliant, the bumiputeras still have to be held up with crutches.

Watered down matriculation routes instead of the toughened STPM to gain places into public universities, endless quotas and negotiated contracts and bail-outs to keep them afloat in businesses etc. don't augur well for the bumiputeras' future economic independence.

The present Malay leaders have a great responsibility ahead of them. They are in the unenviable position of having to change the mind-set of the bumiputeras fast; a feat that eluded even the most brilliant Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The coming decades are going to be merciless for all communities and nations. The time is coming when Malaysia's ballooning population, limited job-creating opportunities and the exorbitant cost in continuing social engineering projects like the NEP would make it impossible for the government to continue 'propping up' the bumiputeras as is being done now. What happens then?

In this future scenario, the Malay leaders will not be able to show up the Chinese Malaysian as the 'bogeymen' for Malay failure as they did in the early '70s. The rule of the day 20 years from now will be 're-Engineer, or be trampled'.