Whilst this forum occasionally debates the illusory Bangsa Malaysia and whilst people like Dr Gimfil James still insist on not only clinging to special rights but to open these to subgroups , then the issue of special treatment and privileges, though strictly unconstitutional, will never come to an end.

The next question one will probably need to ask then is who really qualifies to be a 'bumiputera'?

This will open Pandora's box as we well know that this area has been an ethnic melting pot for centuries and the gene pool is indeed very heterogenous. Everyone will probably carry a gene sequence which will be common to our common ancestors.

For example, even the legendary Hang Tuah is thought by some to be a Chinese convert to Islam. It then follows that the Chinese can be the next to claim bumiputera status.

My alternative proposal to those who genuinely wish to see the nation move forward is for policy makers to agree on a grace period during which special privileges will still recognised based on strict criteria.

After this period, everything concerning special rights stops. From then on, there will be one race, that of Bangsa Malaysia. Everyone will be treated equally and will receive equal privileges and so on.

This, of course, will be totally unacceptable to many Barisan Nasional politicians who will do their best to cling on to power for perpetuality. It would therefore appear that either the BN (read Umno) needs a drastic re-engineering of its policies and attitudes or that an alternative government needs to be voted into power the next time round.

Contrary to James' call for an urgent need to redefine scores of genetic sequences to determine who is 'bumiputera' and who is not, it would be better to consider ourselves as one people and be united.