The announcement that the Education Ministry will maintain the 90% Bumiputera allocation for Malaysia's university matriculation programmes has renewed debates over the place of race-based affirmative action policy in the country. For a look at both sides of the argument, we speak to Professor Dr. P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang, and Ahmad Yazid Othman, CEO of the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM), about quotas, race-based vs needs-based policies, and quality of our education systems.