I refer to the letter Forget not the First Singapore Infantry Regiment .

M Ahmad's sentiments regarding the PAP government of Singapore, which defeated all three Umno candidates in the 1963 parliamentary election and received the support of more than half of all Malay grassroots organisations belies his latent racism which is incapable of a rational and reasonable interpretation of events except when filtered through his myopic worldview.

It is the classic case of being quick to find fault with the speck in the other person's eye but cannot himself see the log in his own eye.

Therefore, the presupposition and assumption which M Ahmad proceeds from is totally and absolutely one-sided, that is from the standpoint of universal values and morality. It means that for people like M Ahmad, the second or even third-class status of the non-Malays - which contravenes the spirit and letter of the Malaysian Constitution but is embedded in the NEP and other official policies of the government of the day - are not marginalisation, discriminatory, unfair, unjust, etc, even though in reality these are so.

He knows full well that the non-Malays in Malaysia have virtually no political say or clout in public policies ranging form foreign affairs to even education.

I remind him that such views are unacceptable precisely because they do not promote harmony, concord and unity. On the contrary, such sentiments are a breeding ground for suspicion and discord. M Ahmad was either ignorant or being dishonest when he deliberately ignored the issue of the Muslim 'ummah' as brought up by the good Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad who quite clearly explained that it is precisely that the reason for Malays not being entrusted with sensitive positions in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) arose from the Muslim community itself.

M Ahmad seems not to know that there is a dual factor involved here - that of race and religion which because of the latter, are inseparably intertwined. M Ahmad should never forget the struggle of the old guard Malays in the PAP like Ahmad Ibrahim, Abdul Rahim Ishak, Haji Yaacob Mohamed, Haji Rahmat Kenap, Osman Wok, etc, who had to contend against the vile racism of the Umno ultras back in the 1960s which represented or signified the PAP's post- colonial phase of combating the triple extremes of communism, communalism and criminalism (triads) at the same time!

Lastly, if the late Major Abbas (the father of Nizam Abbas, PAP lawyer and potential parliamentary candidate) were to be alive today, he would have been infuriated by the such blatantly arrogant remarks of M Ahmad which decry the non- racial ideology and philosophy of the PAP.

By the way, accusing Syed Alwi of being a potential PAP candidate just will not wash. And another thing, Masagos Zulkifli, parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Education under Tharman Shanmugaratnam, was the vice-president of Singtel before his resignation to become an MP. How did Masagos get there? Hint: it was not through any quotas.

Zaqy Muhammad is the CEO of an overseas-based Singaporean consultancy firm. How many Malays in Malaysia hold top managerial posts with multi-national companies (MNCs) by virtue of meritocracy? My advice to M Ahmad is to first remove the log which is in his own eye and then only presume to remove the speck which is in the other person's eye.