Khalid: NEP execution has deviated

Khalid: NEP execution has deviated

Posted by kasee
Tuesday, 18 March 2008, MT
By DHARMENDER SINGH

SHAH ALAM: The implementation of the New Economic Policy has deviated from its original intentions, Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said.

He said the policy was intended to help all Malays but, in the 1990s, it started benefiting only certain groups.

“You discriminate within the race as you have to be within the inner circle of Umno to benefit. What is the use of having such a policy?” he said at a press conference at his official residence yesterday.

He said the NEP was an affirmative action plan and he supported it, but stressed that it should reach the whole community and not just a select few and their agents.

He said the PKR-DAP-PAS coalition wanted a policy that continued to help the people, regardless of race.

Khalid said they wanted the Malays to develop businesses that could go global, the Chinese to penetrate the China market, and to provide training for Indians so they would be prepared when their estates are turned into townships 10 years from now.

“The rakyat, too, want us to implement a system meant for everyone,” he said.

Khalid said there was no reason to worry that any group would miss out as there was enough in a rich state like Selangor for all to have a share. He, however, said there would only be enough for all if the state was run efficiently, without corruption and abuse.

He said the state government would also look into the unemployment issue as there should not be any shortage of jobs in a state where 30% of its current workforce constituted foreign workers.

PKR’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was also at the press conference, said there was a need to separate business from politics to ensure a select few did not abuse the system to amass riches in the name of Malay economic progress.

“We want to reach out to all the people. We will protect those at the bottom and we will protect all programmes to help them, including Barisan supporters,” he said. - STAR