I think the good Dr M Bakri Musa has given Indian Malaysians the wrong diagnosis and thus, the wrong prescription. I refer to his article Indian M'sians should avoid trap of special privileges .

While I agree with his thesis that some Malays have fallen into the trap of a dependency syndrome, I do not believe that Indians want to 'fall into the same trap' as he puts it.

All the Indians want is fair and equal access to the basic needs provided by government. Why, for instance, can't Tamil schools be given more assistance or why can't Tamil be made a compulsory subject for Tamil students in the national schools?

This way the quality and standard of education will rise significantly, especially for the bottom 30 percent of the disadvantaged and underprivileged Indian population.

The Indians have not asked for 'special privileges'. Poverty eradication regardless of race is stipulated under the NEP, but has this been implemented? All that is being asked is the promotion of equality to wipe out poverty irregardless of race as promised by the NEP.

'Modern development economics' as Bakri mentioned prescribes empowerment to enable the poor and the underprivileged of all races to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and to move forward. But is this being done equitably today in Malaysia?

With due respect, Bakri has to come back to Malaysia to see for himself the reality on the ground and to help us all create a more just and equitable society - a Bangsa Malaysia - that will truly promote greater national unity in our country. We who are here are trying to do our best to achieve this.

To digress a little but not far, kindly allow me to raise the issue of the Crimea State Medical University , an issue which throws open to question the quality of our medical graduates from all over the world.

I agree we should be more concerned and should throughly review the quality of all dubious medical colleges where many Malaysians are currently studying.

In the case of the CSMU, what was wrong was not the need to review the quality of its teaching, but to be fair in the assessment of its standards. The whole process and procedure of its de- recognition and the announcement of the new accreditation policy, I must say, leaves much to be desired.