I was extremely shocked to read the report 'My father would have been proud' related by Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the New Straits Times on March 21.

In the article, Mahathir said his father was Mohamad Iskander and that '...my father was one of the few Malays who ran away to school to get an education'.

Is our former prime minister suffering from dementia to even forget his father's actual name? His father was a Indian man from the southern Indian state of Kerala by the name of Mohamad a/l Kutty.

Therefore, genetically Mahathir, whose father is Indian and mother a Malay would be classified as an Indian. However our federal constitution says that any man who profess the religion of Islam, practices the Malay customs and speaks Malay would be considered a Malay.

Therefore, under the constitution’s definition Mahathir’s father was a Malay but in reality and factually, he was an Indian.

But what surprises me and many Malaysians is why is he ashamed of his own Indian heritage so much so that he even declare that his father was a Malay when this is not true.

In his speech at the Perkasa gathering, he even lambasted the non-Malays for equating the NEP policy to apartheid.

In many of his speeches, he has dwelled at length on the rights and privileges of the non-Malays pretending that he also belongs to the bumiputera and they therefore should perpetually be allowed to enjoy the privileges and rights .

Mahathir is what we called a mamak in Malaysia. Many of them are really Indians who have converted to take advantage of the bumiputera status. Some of them pretend to be more Malays than the original Malays.

Many of them have taken full advantage of their status and have gone one become Umno ministers. Unlike them, the original Malays are refined and cultured.

I have lived with them in Kelantan for 40 years and they are a civilised lot. They don’t go around blaming the non-Malays for their problems. Two fine gentleman I would like to mention are Zaid Ibrahim and Mustapha Mohamad and there are others too many to mention.

If Mahathir and his kind continue to call non-malays pendatang, then he should examine his own heritage in that his own father came from Kerala.

Yes, he should not be ashamed to acknowledge his own Indian heritage and proclaim proudly that he is also a pendatang .

Instead of spending his twilight years in graceful retirement, this old man deems it fit to foment hatred and ill will among the races. He should realise by now that he no longer holds any power and influence in the party that he once led.

That was evident when he could not even muster enough votes in the Umno division he once led to be chosen as a delegate in the last Umno general assembly.