I refer to the letter Forget Obama, why don't you all start speaking BM?

I agree with some of the points that the writer brings up, including those on everyone starting to speak Malay as well. But the agreement ends there.

He/She says that ‘Even our prime minister is quoted as saying: 'It is possible for anyone from a minority group to be a nation's leader’.

This is, of course, the same prime minister who has repeatedly gone back on his public statements such ‘We are not going to raise fuel prices’, only to do it the next day; ‘I am not getting married’; only to get married two days later.

So, apart from the fact that his statements can never be trusted, we all know the latest statement is a farce.

I think I speak for a majority of the non Malays when we say that our pressing concern is not one of having a non-Malay prime minister but rather of having some form of equality throughout the system, be it in the civil service, education and so forth.

The writer goes on to ridicule the feelings of the Chinese by saying they feel ‘insecure and marginalised’. As for them feeling like a minority, I'm sure it wasn't their intention to feel so - it was the system that did it.

Yes, Obama is a ‘complete’ American as the writer put it, (which according to the writer includes ‘watching Hollywood movies’ and reading a lot of English titles (why the writer mentions Afrikaans, I do not know for it is not even remotely related to any language that is spoken in Kenya).

The writer’s idea of a national identity is simply that of one who practices Islam among other things but he/she should question as to why religion should be the deciding factor in a national identity.

I'm not denying the fact that if Obama was not a Christian he would probably never have made it past the primaries, but there are so many people who are not Christian, who are at high levels of the US government and intelligence agencies.

This leaves a lot to be said for Malaysia, which treats all non-Malays as being unable to be trusted with any form of national security.

Contrary to what a majority of the Malays think, including the writer, the non-Malays do have an inherent sense of pride of being Malaysian and would not even think twice over going to war for the country.

So just because some of us express dissatisfaction with the system which is largely racist and biased, it does not mean that we do not love our country, more or less than you do.

Our ancestors were also instrumental in building this nation so do not look down upon us because we do not speak Malay as you require us to (in order to prove how patriotic we are).

I agree, however, that more and more should learn to speak Malay, it being the national language.

The US allows for a multi-cultural, multi-religious environment so do not even begin to compare the systems in both countries and trivialise the issue of how non-Malays are being treated by saying that ‘we don't speak Malay with pride’.

Oh, come on. The issue at hand is much larger and much more complex.