I refer to KJ John's article titled A Malaysian identity regarding the Malaysian-ness of Telekom Malaysia and would like to say that the same question can also be directed at Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Petronas and other major government-linked companies (GLCs).

Saying that a company is linked to the government is not the criteria for judging whether that entity is Malaysian. As mentioned by John, we have to look at the composition of its board of directors.

I want to further add that we have also to look at the composition of the managers, staff, contract workers, suppliers and subcontractors. On top of these, we have also to look at the number of scholarships given out.

What we have learnt thus far is that over 90 percent of overseas scholarships awarded by GLCs have been given to one race, even though there are more deserving and qualified applicants from other races.

What we have to understand is that government-owned entities, like Telekom, TNB and Petronas are just government departments run in a privatised manner ie, like a business corporation. Hence, their policies are no different from any other government agency which mean they strictly adhere to Umno/BN policies.