All my life, as far as I can recall, I have been a below average student who scores just above the passing mark. My best achievement was in Form One when I did somehow attain the first position in the sixth class of my school.

After my SPM examination, in which I passed with five credits, I opted for the STPM. Throughout the two years of STPM, I toiled as I could, failing my school level exams time and again, yet each time returning more determined to pass the next one.

Still, when the real examination came and went, I inevitably failed the STPM examination, having attained only a pass in the General Paper. As I have mentioned, I am not the brightest spark around. I humbly accepted the hand I was dealt.

I watched as my peers entered university to become engineers, computer scientists and doctors. While they were there, I took up multiple jobs to help supplement my family's income. Two years later, still determined to attain a degree, I did the unthinkable and registered myself once again for the STPM.

I gave my best, burning the midnight oil as I am fully aware that only diligence and sheer hard work would be my ticket into university. When my second STPM results were finally released, I passed with decent, though not impressive, grades in all subjects, even attaining a commendable Band 5 in my Malaysian University English Test (MUET).

Nevertheless, my application for a place in a local university was still denied, and I am fairly confident that it was not because I made the wrong choice of courses. Disappointed but not disheartened, I appealed and patiently waited and hoped that my final shot at university would be granted.

I suppose my fellow Malaysians would not be surprised to find out that even my final appeal - for any course in any local university - was flatly rejected. After six years since my Form 5, having given my all, I have nothing to show.

I would have quietly and humbly accepted this fact had I not read in a local daily that the government is committed to providing places for 120,000 'intelligent and qualified' students who recently failed to secure placements in local universities, even to the extent of creating additional places for these students.

Such favoritism. Such discrimination.

My simple words to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi are these:

We, the non-bumiputeras, are humans too;

We too, may come from socially-disadvantaged and financially-constrained backgrounds;

We too, have broken families and handicapped siblings who are fully dependent on us to provide for them financially and emotionally for the rest of their lives;

We too, harbour hopes and dreams for ourselves and our loved ones;

And personally, I am sickened by your administration's indecent policies of racism, discrimination, and social injustice;

And that I will succeed in life without your corrupted handouts, for I have the inherent qualities to be successful.