As an 'anak Melayu jati', I would like to voice out a grievance on behalf of our whole Malay community.

In recent years, we can see a lot of 'non Malays' appearing in Umno as leaders . By ancestry, these people are not pure Malays. They managed to change their identity by using Islam.

Clearly, there are loopholes in our laws that allow a person to change his race. This issue must be addressed properly as it affects us, the 'anak Melayu jati'. We know well that these people are not sincere in that they can even disregard and disrespect their ancestors and join the Malay race.

Their motive is to enjoy privileges of the Malays. And Umno doesn't bother to do much on this. We are desperate regarding this policy of simply allowing people to change their race through conversion to Islam and even offering citizenship to Indonesians who are later made bumiputeras as well.

Where is the standing of the 'anak Melayu jati' or 'bumiputera'? Tell us where on this earth can a person change his or her race through religion except in Malaysia? It is ridiculous.

We call upon the Malay rulers to rectify this situation. The word 'bumiputera' is a combination of 'bumi' and 'putera' which should be construed as the 'anak cucu' to this land. Bumiputeras should be defined as: 'Anak anak Melayu yang nenek moyang telah bermastautin di bumi Tanah Melayu sebelum kemerdekaan, biarpun agama yang dianuti bukan Islam'.

The Malay community as a whole is looking forward to a clear definition so as to protect bumiputera special rights in the long run.