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Peter,

I sympathise with you on your views with this a delicate topic. Let me elaborate.....

I am a "new" Australian having migrated here in 1990. I am of Asian descent, however, I have no particular race and I find the issue of race rather perplexing. I am also not an intellectual or an academic. My father was a Sri Lankan of Tamil descent hence a minority in Sri Lanka.

My mother is of Chinese descent and endured internment under the British in Malaya (she was placed in a "Chinese New Village") just after the Japanese occupation when Communism was on the rise in South East Asia.

Mixed marriages was extremely rare and my mother was ostracised by her family when she married my father. I was born a Catholic in 1950 and had a very happy childhood and though my dad was as black as the ace of spades and my mother was yellow it didn't occur to me that they were different. I didn't even know I had Chinese relatives until I started secondary school and was confronted by my Chinese cousin. From then on every Chinese New Year was a grand celebration with my cousin and his family because my aunty welcomed us though my uncle was indifferent.

After I left school I joined the Royal Malaysian Air Force and qualified as a fighter pilot, met and married my wife who was an Australian of Irish descent and we have 4 beautiful children, 2 of whom are married.

One to an Indian from New Delhi and the other to an Australian of Scottish descent. We all get along really well and life is as sweet as can be.

I trained in Canada, USA and New Zealand and managed to reach the pinnacle of fighter flying have qualified as a Flying Instructor and a Fighter Combat Instructor. There is no higher qualification for a fighter pilot. I have always spoken my mind and am a realist. I do things rather than merely talk about it. This is precisely why I find most debates interesting but for me it (debates) belongs in classrooms and academia. When it comes to politics, it is just ideology, just as religion being an ideology. Therefore, debating ideology is a worthless exercise because it is next to impossible to change one's ideology or belief system.

Would you believe I've been called a racist for expressing views that are unacceptable to some. How is it even possible for someone with my background and upbringing to be racist?!? But, that's how some people see me as without realising that it is they who are racist!!

As you are well aware Malaysia is on a path of self-destruction if the new government cannot extricate religion from politics. In face, the next few days will be very telling because I have many friends in Malaysia I keep abreast with Malaysian politics though I an a dinky die Aussie now.

The problem we have in Australia is that the "fair go" attitude has been hijacked by all manner of people and gotten confused and bastardised by individuals who knowingly or unknowingly have fallen victim to the hijackers.

For instance, the very idea of multiculturalism was grossly misunderstood by the "powers to be" when it was introduced. I AM THE ULTIMATE MULTICULTURAL PERSON. How putting people of one ethnicity in one community promotes multiculturalism is beyond me. People need to mix (if you think assimilate is a bad word, as many do) with everyone else to appreciate each others culture. Even today when I'm Cabbramatta, the number of people who cannot speak anything other than Vietnamese is surprising. And to think the Vietnamese first arrived in 1975 over 40 years ago.

This is also why you have Vietnamese, Lebanese and former Yugoslavians living within 10 kilometers forming gangs and killing one another.

If you ask me governing a nation is more that politics but a democratic system is only as good as it citizens are well educated. An educated person is a thinking person which is quite different from a learned person. Unfortunately, capitalism has ensured that making money is more important that providing the basics of life for everyone and a safe environment to the individual to pursue his or her dreams. But when the dream ends with the material there is no room for the society or the environment.

But I digress....... When it comes to race, religion and politics what is most important is the ability to live and let live. Islam is probably the worst religion even though its followers claim that it is a religion of peace. The reason I say it's the worse is because Islam is also the religion practised by the most number of illiterates. In the madrasahs in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and even in Malaysia children are sent to religious schools where they are not taught but brainwashed and instead of preparing these children to live in the world as we know it the children are being prepared for the next world. They then come out into the real world and cannot cope and suddenly the next world is so much more inviting. Worse still, we have muslim community leaders who are in denial. God (if there is one) help us all.

Victor