I see that I have touched a raw nerve with my letter Unadulterated chauvinism in S'pore . Unlike Minorities M , I was fortunate enough not to know CV Devan Nair personally. When Devan Nair was president of Singapore, he was not even allowed to use the swimming pool.

I would ask readers of this letter to read God's Dust: A Modern Asian Journey by Ian Buruma where he reveals that Devan Nair was not allowed to use the swimming pool at the Istana (the president's official residence) on Lee Kuan Yew's orders. What is the use of having a president who cannot even use the swimming pool in his own residence?

But who was Devan Nair hard done by? The Tunku? Or Lee Kuan Yew? The Malaysian government paid him a parliamentary pension till his dying day. Did the Singapore government give him one for being the president? Did not Lee Kuan Yew - who knew Devan Nair from the early 1950s - know that he was an alcoholic? Every branch level union leader in Singapore knew this in the early 1960s . It was only in the 1980s that Lee Kuan Yew 'realised' this.

Was it the Tunku or Devan Nair that quoted Aurobindo and Tagore, when trade unionists were languishing in jail without trials in Singapore? What did Nair do for the ethnic minorities in Singapore? The champion of the 'Malaysian Malaysia' campaign apparently 'could not find' ethnic minorities in Singapore who suffered same prejudices that ethnic minorities faced in Malaysia.

Malay members of parliament in Singapore are stooges of the PAP government. I would urge Siew Wah to read 'The Charade of Meritocracy' by Micheal D Barr published by The Far Eastern Economic Review, towards he end of last year. Is Siew Wah suggesting that there is no crime, corruption and other social problems in Singapore. Look at the Singapore Kidney Foundation for starters.

The Singapore Malays are still behind their Malaysian brethren in terms of opportunities for moving up the ladder economically and the economic dice is loaded against them.

As regards Chip's comment , I wish to ask him what happened to that Malay National Day parade commander. Is he used only for ceremonial occasions like the one fighter pilot rolled out for ceremonial occasions? I suggest that Chips is not only blind but must be intellectually disabled to say that Lee Hsien Loong did not make the remarks he made about Muslims in a mosque, in Singapore in the mid 1980s. This caused a stir in the neighbouring countries.

The issue we are discussing is not the sins committed by the Malaysian Armed Forces in 1969, but of a supposed government.