Sept 11, 2001 is a black day for humanity and human history - the day when a new kind of terrorism was born.

Some readers and leaders have mentioned that the US has to relook its policy, especially those concerning the Middle East and Palestine. They say the US has been oppressing those nations. Some leaders, including our Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said "stop the oppression, before talking about fighting terrorism".

We talk about oppression and unfairness but are we fair? The Indian and Chinese Malaysians have been oppressed in Malaysia for the past 45 years. Why and how? There are many reasons for that, namely:

1) Job opportunity: Statistics show more than 80 percent of the civil servants are Malays and in some services almost 90 to 100 percent are Malays.

2) Economy: The number of Indians in small- and medium-sized businesses is meagre.

3) Promotion: Other than job opportunity, Indians, especially the Hindus, and Chinese have been deprived of promotions. The best examples can be found in the navy, army, air and police force.

4) Education: Most Tamil primary schools are in poor condition. At tertiary level, Indians are deprived of the chance of enrolling in public universities. Most of them are from poor background and cannot afford expensive private colleges.

5) Unfair distribution of wealth: It is a well-known fact that the distribution of wealth in this country is not equal. Even the government tenders offered to Indians go to certain groups or individuals.

The Indians have been living in poverty. They have been discriminated and oppressed for decades. Even if the fact is denied, the truth will always prevail. My question is, why point the finger at the US when we are not any better?

Doesn't citizenship mean that everybody is same and equal? Unfortunately that is not the case here. The Indians and the Chinese have been the backbone of Malaysia's economy in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Are we being appreciated?

Last but not least, we should try to be human beings first before we put on the masks of religion, race and language. Firstly, we should try to be sincere to ourselves. Secondly, we should try to clean our backyard before a similar tragedy befalls our nation.