BN's 'raced based politics' and 'quota mentality' need to be erased from our minds.

After primary school, I started losing my Malay friends who were being picked and send off to special boarding school. It continued as I moved into Secondary school. When I was doing my 6th Form in Kuantan's SABS, there were no more Malay students in my class.

Suddenly, when I entered University Malaya, there were again the Malay students - and the perception amongst many non-Malay students is that these Malay students just do not deserve to be there - and is only there because of the quota system and the special preference accorded to them.

Even when the Malay/Bumiputra students do well, the perception was that because there were different marking standards employed, 'the exam questions were leaked to them ahead of time - with the answers', they had special classes, where they were given the indication of the question that will be coming out for the exams.

After graduating, it is even worse - because many Malaysians look at Bumiputra professionals and/or graduates as 2nd-class.

It is really so unfair to a lot of Bumiputras - who would really in equal competition fare so much better than their other non-Bumiputras.

This ethnic-based practices assist in the kind of 'divide and rule' system used by the BN to continue to rule until possibly 2008 (we shall see what happens after September this year...) - a system that the British colonial powers used.

When I was in campus, in University Malaya, the effect of the separation of the Bumiputra from the non-Bumiputra did creat a lot of prejudices - that kept students of different ethnic groups apart - i.e. the 'divide and rule' plan work. (It is sad that so many Bumiputras in Malaysia do not really have a best friend [or even a good friend] who is non-Bumiputra, and vice-versa)

When in university, we did have some sessions where students just came together and shared - and for many, it was very eye opening to realize that human beings are the same - thus breaking down many of these prejudices. We also did make great efforts to bring students together through social service programmes, discussion groups, etc - and it helped break down some of the prejudices.

UITM is still 100% bumiputra students - and it means that even at the University level, the total 'divide and rule' agenda of the BN is still on-going, and as such the prejudices that divide Malaysians will continue here until maybe the time they come out and start working - if they take the effort to mix and interact as true friends with them non-Bumis...

The "Divide and Rule" was something that the British colonialist used - and it was adopted by the 3 race-based political parties UMNO, MCA and MIC, which formed the Alliance and today the BN - and for these parties to survive, it was important to continue to propagate the 'divide and rule' agenda, the 'quota' systems. With the quota system, the talk has always been about Malay-Chinese-Indian quotas, Bumi - Non-bumi quotas - and hence it continued to propagate the divisions between the communities and different ethnic groups that make up the Malaysian people.

As I mentioned earlier, the time has come now for us to move away from all these divisions and move forward becoming a Malaysian people - a Malaysian race - a Malaysian Nation.

With the Pakatan Rakyat - we have moved away from race-based politics of the BN - UMNO,MCA,MIC.... (For the survival of UMNO - they had to propagate the issue of 'Malay rights' - and they being the gladiator for the Malays, same with MCA for the Chinese, and MIC for the Indians....)

With the Pakatan Rakyat - we have moved away from race-based politics ...or have we?

But alas, the 'brain-washing' - and the being under the BN rule for too long a time -- has resulted many of us still being caught up with that 'ethnic-based quota-mentality'.

Even today, HINDRAF, for example, is talking about Indian quotas... and even the Selangor MB is still talking about ethnic quotas. The UiTM students who protested the statement of the Selangor MB also is still prisoner of the 'ethnic-based quota-mentality'.

We must seriously make efforts to start propagating the Malaysian race - the Malaysian people - the Malaysian nation...

I believe, that quota systems must still be there, but it must be to benefit the poor, those from the rural areas who do not enjoy the same level of opportunities and facilities as those in some big towns or some of them 'bigger' schools... It must be a socio-economic quota - not a race, religion or ethnic-based quota system.

The government is always propagating the idea that this is "sensitive" and it should not be discussed and/or questioned.

It is something that is in our Federal Constitution - and as such it is 'sacred' --- but hello, "Keluhuran Perlembagaan" translates to "Supremacy of the Constitution" - not 'sacredness' of the constitution.

And there are so many things in our Federal Constitution that are bad - that should be repealed...removed from our Federal Constitution - and this includes those provisions that allows Detention Without Trial laws to exist in Malaysia - that allows Malaysia to still be under un-revoked declarations of Emergency.

It is foolish to say do not challenge the Federal Constitution -- it is not perfect, and remember that to date there has been numerous constitutional amendments, and there will be more in the future. So, which Federal Constitution do we say is sacred - the original Federal Constitution or the one that has been amended so many times and so easily because BN (and the Alliance before) had more than 2/3 of the seats in Parliament - and with that the Constitution was so easily amended. (There is even no provision in the Constitution of Malaysis requiring the doing of a Referendum - i.e. people get to vote and have a say whether the Constitution needs to be amended - and only if there is 2/3rd support, can Parliament amend...as an example..).

*** I do not see why the Election Commission also have statistics about what is percentage of Malays, Chinese, Indians, etc in their records... why do the media also talk about this? Why do we bother about it being "Malay majority" seat or otherwise. All that should be important is the number of Malaysians in a particular constituency...nothing else (at least for the Election Commission....)