In our homeland, all 'siblings' must be treated equal.

Citizens of a country must respect the laws of the country. Especially for those people born in a country, that country is their homeland and its laws must be followed. However, since there has been quite a lot of confusion lately regarding which one's homeland is, even among the literate, I wish to illustrate the meaning by saying that Parameswara's homeland was Java. This Pelambang prince who came and founded Malacca left his homeland to settle in Malaya. His children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who were born here can call then Malaya and now Malaysia their homeland. They are now Malaysians or Malaysian Javanese if you like, while their great grandfather, Parameswara was a Javanese. Similarly, Hang Li Po's homeland was China but her descendants who are born here are Malaysian or Malaysian Chinese and their homeland is Malaya or Malaysia. So Malaysians should respect the laws of Malaysia because every citizen elected the politicians who sit in parliament to pass or change any undesirable laws.

As Malaysians we not only respect the country's laws, we also should be patriotic to our country. We must show allegiance to our country. But then that does not mean that we must show our allegiance to people in power. So people in power cannot demand allegiance from the people. Allegiance or loyalty and support from the people can only be fostered through the caring deeds of the people in power, whoever they may be.

Some power crazy people demand allegiance from the people, especially the minority in a country. And when such demands are not met, these people threaten with sending or asking them to return to their homeland when actually the country where they are born is their homeland. These power-crazy people forget that loyalty must be developed through love and care and that those people who are not loyal to them are just as patriotic to their homeland, the land where they are born in.

In fact, by using threats and harsh words, people tend to rebel against such so-called leaders. When people do not love such leaders, the people feel nothing but disgust for them. When that happens it is an indication that they are poor leaders with poor capability to lead.

Such leaders are often found among community leaders who only know how to fight for one particular community, neglecting everybody else. They are often racist. Should I say that? No, I believe these people are not actually racist, rather they make use of race issues or religious issues to become popular, more for their own selfish gains. But then, in that sense they are racist! But they are not actually fighting for the race. They merely make use of the race.

Examine what they say carefully and you find that they even say things which has no truth. One even claim that a particular race has been pushed to the wall and is in danger of losing power when in actual fact their power will always be in the hands of the rulers and the race is a majority community in the country, when the minority is merely asking for fairness in opportunities for all the poor and needy, something which no sane person would oppose.

Certainly, the rich needs no aids for anything. Yet when some politician said that the rich ought not to get discounted prices in purchasing houses, these people make a hue and cry as though those very rich who can afford houses at half a million ringgit still need such discounts. Imagine that! According to such leaders, people who are millionaires need discounts while people do not even have a quarter of a million ringgit have to buy houses without a sen discounted! Why the difference when Malaysia is the homeland for all of them? So why were those rich leaders making so much noise? Perhaps with their huge amount of money they hope to build huge mansions at discounted prices while some others buy their small terrace houses at no discount whatsoever. Not enough money? Sorry, no discount. Wait until you have saved enough, okay? I know you are a Malaysian too.

No, I am not envious of those truly poor people who are given discount for their houses but should not discount be given to all the truly poor Malaysians? Even though I am not filthy rich, I think I am rich enough not to need a discounted house. Of course, if a developer were to be so kind as to give me some discount, I would gratefully accept as I cannot consider myself rich either but I would never demand it or by using other people's situations to obtain it.

There was even one Malaysian Chinese Muslim who believed that Malaysian Chinese born in Malaysia ought not to consider Malaysia as their homeland in saying that those who are not happy with 'an uneven playing field' should go back to their homeland. He simply could not understand the word 'homeland'. What a pity! And he is not illiterate!

All the minority community is hoping to strive for is fairness in their homeland. Just as they are patriotic so do they think of equal opportunities in their own country. If their country where their allegiance and patriotism lie does not treat them as equals whereas can they find equality?