Malaysian matters
Sir: `The Cartland factor' by Mr Richard West (19 December) drew interesting references to'the background on the present state of relations between Britain and Malaysia. I am afraid some of the facts in the article are not correct. Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir had never been a Minister of Interior. Malaysia was formed in 1963 and not in 1957 which was the year of in- dependence.
On the question of places for Malays in the local universities, the overall picture given by the article is not quite accurate. There is no truth that the marking of ex- aminations is slanted against the Chinese because the students and the staff of the science departments (medicine, engineer-
ing, architecture) for the majority of the five universities are overwhelmingly non- Malays.
The description of the 1969 racial riot was a bit sweeping and made the Malays look more like bloodthirsty mobs. Regret- tably, both Chinese and Malays suffered losses of lives and properties in the riot which came to a head by intense political agitations and racial provocations culminated by the Selangor State opposi- tion parties' victory parade.
B. Shariff
Office. of the High Commissioner for Malaysia, 45 Belgrave Square, London, SW I
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