LETTER | On Sept 28, our prime minister at a function in New York was asked a question from the floor as to how he will ensure that Indians in Malaysia will be less discriminated against and be given more opportunities in the New Malaysia.

The question reflects the barriers and hurdles we face in New Malaysia's aspirations to ensure policies are no longer formulated along polarised lines. Unequal opportunities have been - and are still - prevalent in all communities within our pluralistic society.

Opportunities in the past be they social, political or economical were tailored to ensure the ruling elite were favoured above others. This fuelled the scourge of corruption and abuse of power and to a large extent, it went unchecked.

The previous government camouflaged their abuse of position and power by championing causes along racial lines. They became good at it having had 60 years to fine tune the system.

Most of the other communities were encouraged to fight for their rights using communal platforms. This replicated the “divide-and-rule” approach that made sure the racial divisions and tensions remained in place.

It was a diabolical approach that suited an autocratic government. The British were masters at it. Hopefully, the reforms now mooted will address this and get New Malaysia back on track.

The future lies in ensuring that a level playing field is created for the best to advance in making our nation competitive on the global stage regardless of religion, race, creed or colour. Obviously, it will take time.

Government policies in the past that were formulated along racial lines have failed. It was the main cause of distrust, dissatisfaction and cracks in our plural society.

We must, in solidarity, emphasise that meritocracy has to be the basis of both government and corporate appointments apart from ensuring equal access to education and job opportunities. This will be the key challenge in Parliament and for us all in the coming days.

Of course, those who are below the poverty line must be assisted. However, they must not be spoon-fed. Fair mechanisms must be created to identify those who are in need and the state must do all it can to fairly give a hand or a lift, again blind to religion, race, creed and colour.

The right questions must be asked and it must be in tandem with our aspirations as Malaysians. Everyone must be assured that honesty, integrity and hard work will be rewarded equally under the Malaysian sun.

We cannot and must not compromise on this paradigm. We have to think and breathe as one for New Malaysia and we need our new government to act as the catalyst to achieve this goal.

United we must stand with no room to be divided.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.