TUN DR MAHATHIR, THE CULPRIT IN BASTARDISING & GOING AGAINST THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF NEP

Yesterday, NEP founder Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak's son, Datuk Seri Nazir Tun Razak, who is CIMB CEO made a shocking revelation that the New Economic Policy (NEP) has been bastardised and has deviated from his original spirit and intentions.

Although he did not name the culprit, its so clear from his explanation that our 22 years longest serving Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is the main culprit in deviating the policy.

Datuk Seri Nazir claimed that it has come a long way from social engineering experiment originally aimed at eradicating poverty for the poor, who were mainly Malays then, but the NEP was used to enrich a small fraction of UMNOputra cronies who were close to then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir.

Datuk Seri Nazir criticised the issuance of Approved Permits (AP) to Naza Group, as an example, which had allowed it to prosper into one of the largest beneficiaries and companies through the AP scheme, created by the government to squeeze private car owners in the country who had no option to choose between buying their own private car or to use the public transport. Malaysia's public transport is recorded the worse among some third world country and it is not surprising if we will find it extremely difficult to find public buses on the road in the near future.

Datuk Seri Nazir said, "If you just want a small number of people (which is against the spirit and intentions of the NEP) to make money, we might as well just give them the money." The government did just that - with our money and these recipients had failed to assist others in its goal but build an empire for themselves and their family only or wasted them by buying luxury cars, luxury homes and marrying many wives.

Tun Dr Mahathir must now be regretting for doing this change in policy - going against the true spirit and intentions of the NEP. It has never been a Malaysian standard to accept responsibility and to be punished.

It is not surprising that leaders in both Umno and Perkasa continue to defend the NEP because it is a potent tool to make 'quick' money without any effort and to perpetuate their racist politics, just to justified its use to protect the Malay interests but none of these leader in Umno or Perkasa can tell us why the community is still lagging far behind the Chinese community although with this 'special' benefit.

The failure of Tun Dr Mahathir's policy on the NEP requires a thorough study and review and it is hoped that leaders like UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin will do the same to warn his leaders not to sweep this failure under the carpet.

Maybe we should allow Datuk Seri Nazir Tun Razak to spearhead this special committee to find an enlightenment and formulate a new and fair system in line with its real spirit and intentions of the NEP or in any other so-called names.

We have no choice but to stop this bastardisation and have to stick to its original spirits and aspirations to serve the really needy poor Malaysians irrespective of their ethnical background.

SAY NO TO RACISM! WE ARE ALL MALAYSIANS, IRRESPECTIVE OF COLOUR, RACE OR CREED.