Please allow me to my two sen's worth of comments on the current hot topic pertaining to the drop in our varsities ranking by THES (Times Higher Education Supplement).

I must say that the writer Chez1978 has managed to pull the issue into its proper perspective by saying that race is not the issue here. But then Prof P Ramasamy is also spot on for various reasons and also basically because of his background and first-hand experience. Dr Collin Abraham's contribution proposing some kind of solutions to the issues, as many others writers before, is good and commendable.

Sincerely, my question is very simple - do we for a moment really, really believe that the government is not aware of the matter? I hate to say this, but the Umnoputera agendas are bringing this country to you know where.

To say that the situation in the varsities is only a reflection of the situation in Malaysia is to only put things mildly, very mildly. The frightening thing is that the whole government machinery and structure in actuality is not too far in comparison to the actuality in our varsities. I hope I am very wrong.

I really do not know whether this approach to nudge, to enlighten, to propound, to propose, to educate, to bring to attention, to write letters to newspapers or even to malaysiakini , to plead, to beg or all the other methods employed so far to advice and inform the government will bring any good.

Vision 2020 as propounded will never be attained at the rate and way things are being done. Now we have the best and most esteemed university in Malaysia coming out with billboards to sing its own praise with the extreme drop in ranking by THES. Are we now moving towards an era where there is very fine line between brilliance and insanity?

The questions is really very simple: Do we want to go out there as towering Malaysians to compete with the world's best or are to compete or quibble for the leftovers within Malaysia?

It may come to the latter if the powers-that-be do not see that the decay, the rot, as indicated by our universties' ranking and episodes thereafter are of things that have gone wrong and these wrongs further advertised and spinned as 'brilliant achievements'.