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The Prime Minister to know the measures to improve Bumiputera’s economy especially when the number of unemployed Bumiputrera is increasing, without blaming other races. for the second quarter of 2020, the Bumiputera unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent compared to the national average of 5.1 per cent, while the incidence of Bumiputera poverty in 2019 was 7.2 per cent compared to Chinese (1.4 per cent) and Indian (4.8 per cent).The percentage of Bumiputera equity was recorded at only about 16 per cent and it was declining and worrying compared to previously reported percentage.Therefore what matters most is the measures taken by the government and our commitment to do better than before.Through the KKB, Muhyiddin said the government would study and scrutinise the Bumiputera sectors that lagged too far behind, and complete and integrated data collected by Teraju will allow more focused action to be taken, on government’s efforts regarding Bumiputera equity in listed and unlisted companies, as well as Bumiputera trust agencies. On economic cooperation between Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera, Muhyiddin said he would focus on the matter in the framework which is currently being planned.

The government is committed to ensuring the success of the Bumiputera agenda through the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (WKB2030) and the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP)Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in a bid to empower the socio-economic development of the Bumiputera, the government has formed the Bumiputera Prosperity Council (MKB), which he chairs, besides having agreed for the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) to become the Main Coordinating Agency for all Bumiputera socio-economic development agenda.Teraju will be the sole coordinator of the central Bumiputera database across various ministries, agencies and government-linked companies (GLC). Besides, Bumiputera will also be given a double leap through the inculcation of entrepreneurship culture at various levels to turn Bumiputera as an entrepreneurial race.The entrepreneurship culture will continue to be nurtured in an integrated manner through the roles of various agencies such as Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad (PUNB), Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) and TEKUN Nasional (Tekun), as well as Bumiputera-mandated agencies, as well as Bumiputera-mandated agencies.

The abstract policies and goals of the NEP were implemented by the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Malaysia Plans. Some specific requirements were introduced to achieve the 30% Bumiputra equity target set by the NEP. Amongst these was a requirement that all initial public offerings (IPOs) set aside a 30% share for Bumiputra investors. These investors could be selected by the company being listed on the stock exchange, or the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which would normally recommend such state-owned trust agencies as Permodalan Nasional or the Armed Forces pension fund. These shares were initially heavily discounted, as IPO prices were often significantly lower than prices after the listing had taken place. However, this advantage has disappeared in recent years. Nevertheless, this regulation has been criticised, especially as the 30% target continues to apply after the IPO has occurred; if the Bumiputra investors divest their shares, the company must issue new shares to maintain the proportion of Bumiputra shares above 30%.

The NEP had the stated goal of poverty eradication and economic restructuring so as to eliminate the identification of ethnicity with economic function. The initial target was to move the ratio of economic ownership in Malaysia from a 2.4:33:63 ratio of Bumiputra, Other Malaysian, Foreigner ownership to a 30:40:30 ratio. This was to be done by redistributing the wealth to increase the ownership of enterprise by Bumiputras from the then 2.4% to 30% of the share of national wealth. The 30% target for Bumiputra equity was proposed by Ismail Abdul Rahman after the government was unable to come to a consensus on an appropriate policy goal. Alongside this redistribution of wealth was the goal of increased economic growth. This economic growth would allow the non-Bumiputra share of the economy to decrease, while permitting the growth of non-Bumiputra business interests in absolute terms. In some quarters, this was referred to as "expanding pie theory": the Bumiputra share of the pie would increase, without reducing the size of the non-Bumiputra slices of the pie. This theory was first enunciated in the Second Malaysia Plan.
In 1975 the government created incentives to expand large-scale manufacturing industries and energy-intensive industries, targeting these industries and building policies around them. The Heavy Industries Corporation of Malaysia (HICOM), for example, was formed to assist in the manufacture of pig-iron, aluminium die casting, pulp and paper, steel, cement, motorcycle and heavy engineering. At the same time, export incentives were initiated.

Concurrently, the Policy also called for fairer distribution of opportunities to participate in the widening range of economic activities. The Policy opined that the core problem that stood in the way of national unity was compartmentalisation of racial groups by economic function; particularly the association of Malay and other indigenous races with subsistence agriculture. To dissociate Malay and other indigenous races with traditional agriculture, the Policy called on the Malaysian Government to provide assistance to all Malaysians in:
Finding employment
Securing participation in economic activities
Acquiring ownership in various economic sectors
As Malay and other indigenous races progressed in the modern economic sector, other Malaysians were encouraged to introduce modern agriculture to eliminate the identification of Malay and other indigenous races with subsistence agriculture.
The overarching principle of the Policy was the creation of "a socio-economic environment in which individual Malaysians find self-fulfilment within a system which provides for proportional participation, management and control in the economic life of the nation".

The New Economic Policy (NEP) which began with the Second Malaysia Plan (1971–1975), and lasted until the Fifth Malaysia Plan (1986–1990), had three main objectives namely:
To achieve national unity, harmony and integrity
Through socio-economic restructuring (of the society)
To minimize the level of poverty in the country (poverty eradication)
The NEP was conceived as a two-pronged strategy for eradicating poverty for all Malaysians as well as reducing and subsequently eliminating identification of race by economic function and geographical location. The Policy sought to achieve its objectives through rapid expansion of the economy over time and set its target of substantially reducing the incidence of absolute poverty by 1990. To achieve this, the Policy called for aggressive improvement of economic status and quality of life for all Malaysians through:
Access to land
Physical capital
Training
Public facilities

The New Economic Policy (NEP) Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) was a social re-engineering and affirmative action program formulated by the National Operations Council (NOC) in the aftermath of 13 May Incident in Malaysia. This policy was adopted in 1971 for a period of 20 years and it was succeeded by the National Development Policy (NDP) in 1991. This article looks into the historical context that gave rise to the formulation of this policy, its objectives and implementation methods as well as its impact on the Malaysian economy in general.

Syed Mokthar would come to realise that there were politicians and decision-makers who were happy to be "pawns" in Ali Baba arrangements, overlooking qualified bumiputra businessmen.
Even though I had the experience and the money, people in power deliberately chose to ignore this. They did not want to give me or other bumiputra businessmen the opportunity to prove ourselves.Instead they decided that there were no qualified bumiputeras and recommended non bumiputeras to take over government entities established to realise NEP targets. This was sad and disappointing.

Syed Mokthar has been criticised for controlling too many strategic sectors including several ports, postal operator Pos Malaysia Bhd, national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd and rice trading firm Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS).No Ali Baba deals .The third of seven children, Syed Mokhtar's first taste of business was helping out in his father's cattle trading business until the venture fell on hard times.Syed Mokhtar dropped out of school just months away from completing Form Five.He started a lorry transportation company called Syarikat Kenderaan Sentosa in 1972, which was awarded four lorry licenses under the bumiputra quota. Syed Mokthar claims that he turned down offers by Chinese businessmen to enter into a "Ali Baba" arrangement, where a Malay takes up bumiputra equity allocated to them but trades it off to a Chinese to run the business.

Syed Mokthar found himself distanced from the leadership when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi succeeded Mahathir as prime minister, prompting Syed Mokthar to venture to the Middle East for opportunities. Syed Mokthar's journey was certainly not smooth-sailing. He was badly hit by the Asian financial crisis in 1997 which wiped out RM2.4 billion in value from his assets to about RM600 million. After the crisis, Syed Mokthar bounced back and entered the big league with his acquisition of Malaysia Mining Corp Bhd (now MMC Corp Bhd), Perbadanan Nasional Bhd or PERNAS (now Tradewinds Corp Bhd) and DRB-Hicom Bhd in the 2000s.

Though he was well connected to government officials, Syed Mokthar only met the then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the first time in 1997.He described the encounter as the "most unnerving 70 minutes of my life" as he had to explain all his business interests to Mahathir.
This came amid incessant rumblings that Syed Mokthar's success was due to his friendship with Muhyiddin, who was then the menteri besar of Johor.Eventually Syed Mokthar won over Mahathir and the two men began what the biography described as a "mentor-mentee" relationship that would extend beyond Mahathir's days in office.

But it was in his rice trading days that Syed Mokthar made friends who would eventually take on influential positions. They include deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and former Perlis mentri besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.In the 1990s, Syed Mokhtar became an active corporate investor buying into public listed companies and acquiring state-owned enterprises from the government's privatisation policy.By 30, Syed Mokthar became a millionaire.

A simple man who still drives around in his old Proton Perdana despite being ranked by Forbes as the richest man in Malaysia with a net worth of US$3.3 billion.Friends in high places From his early days dabbling in transportation and rice trading, Syed Mokthar's business empire swiftly expanded to shoe and garment manufacturing, shipping, property development and agriculture.

Syed Mohktar points out that Malaysia's richest men somehow trace their wealth back to political patronage and the NEP, which was launched in 1971 to grow bumiputra participation in the economy. By the billionaire's own admission, he was a poor Kedah-born kampung boy who seized opportunities presented by the NEP and post-Independence Malaysia's move toward an industrialised economy.

The NEM is about distributing the nation's wealth more fairly. The sensitive part of it is the 30% allocation of corporate wealth to bumiputra who make up about 60% of the population.

19 Bumiputera companies with a market capitalisation of RM3.1 billion listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd . Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin.All the companies are under the ‘Skim Jejak Jaya Bumiputera’ (SJJB), a scheme that tracks the success of Bumiputeras under the Ministry of Finance ,after witnessing a contract signing agreement between the Authority for Info-Communication Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) and Prestariang Systems Sdn Bhd.Under the contract, Prestariang will offer information technology and certification training programmes for bloggers and teachers in Brunei. Awang Adek, who is also chairman of SJJB working committee, the government assisted companies with listing potential and capabilities . The scheme established in 2007, was mooted by former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who is the chairman of SJJB. On the contract signed , Awang Adek said Prestariang, a soon to-belisted company under the Bumiputera-scheme, had proven the effectiveness of the scheme and the commitment of the government to help Bumiputeras at large.

Selected SOEs will intensify management buy-out activities to increase Bumiputera equity ownership.The 30% equity ownership target is part of the government’s steps to enhance the Bumiputera economic community.The government is committed to continuing the Bumiputera agenda at the national level, through implementation of inclusive policies and initiatives, including emphasis on changing the mindset,which also underlined a necessary reform in the Bumiputera empowerment agenda.Bumiputera trust agencies such as Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and Pelaburan Mara Bhd will identify more innovative financial products to offer attractive and higher returns to Bumiputera shareholders.

state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will also acquire controlling stakes in potential Bumiputera companies, particularly in high value-added and emerging industries.This is with the view of driving up performance, as well as increasing the value of the companies, and ultimately divesting the companies to potential Bumiputera investors. This measure will enable SOEs to implement effective initiatives and programmes that will benefit the Bumiputera.

The government will continue to emphasise Bumiputera participation in strategic investments towards achieving the target of at least 30% corporate equity ownership, according to the Mid-term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan 2016-2020 report.Bumiputera institutions will continue to invest in high growth companies and companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, as well as venture into potential companies as a minority shareholder. Bumiputera institutions will continue to play a vital role in increasing effective control and sustainable corporate equity ownership.

The government gave another reason why market price was not used to compute equity ownership. On Nov 7, 2006, in a winding-up speech at the committee stage of Budget 2007 in Parliament, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Raman Suliman said it was because market prices were always changing and influenced by factors such as window dressing and speculation activities in the share market.

The government may argue that the use of par value in the computation of equity ownership started in the 1970s. During that time, there was hardly any computerisation in the country, valuation of equity ownership and monitoring changes in share ownership based on market price was extremely difficult. The use of par value instead of market price for listed companies at the initial stage of the NEP should only be regarded as a stopgap measure.

Many listed stocks have low par values but their market values can be higher by many times because of their good business performance; on the other hand, there are stocks which have market price below par value. It is nonsensical to argue that for the sake of consistency, the valuation of both listed and unlisted companies should be based on par value.

For unlisted companies ("Sendirian Berhads"), agree with the government that par value should be used as the basis because their shares are not traded in the open market and, therefore, their market prices cannot be determined. But for listed companies, we are of the opinion that the valuation should be based on market price which is a better indicator of the true value of shares.

We concur with the government that all companies registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) should be included in the computation of equity ownership and not just confined to listed companies. This is because there is a big difference in the number of listed companies and number of unlisted companies; for instance, as at end 2005 there were about 720,000 companies registered with CCM, of which only about 1,000 were listed in Bursa Malaysia. About 719,000 of them were unlisted.

These two flaws create serious doubt as to whether the official data really reflect a true and fair picture of equity ownership among the various ethnic groups in the country. The government's methodology and estimates are not sacred cows and should be subject to scrutiny. Hopefully, when the two flaws are brought to the attention of key decision-makers, they will respond positively and will change the methodology in due course.

Two fundamental flaws
The various tables in Malaysia Plan documents that show ‘Ownership of Share Capital of Limited Companies’ categorically state:
1. "Par value" was the basis of valuation of share capital; and
2. They "exclude shares held by federal and state governments"
While the government’s transparency in this regard should be applauded, these two aspects cannot be treated lightly. The use of par value, instead of market price, and the exclusion of government shareholding from the computation of equity ownership make the government's methodology irrational and incomplete.

The truth about equity ownership must be revealed so that the dissatisfaction and frustration which create division and distrust among citizens of the country can be erased and national unity can be achieved any misconception of non-achievement of the 30 percent bumiputera target should be rectified and NEP-related policies that led to cronyism and blatant inefficiency should be discontinued.

Indians feel marginalised because despite their very low share of equity ownership in limited companies in the country, insufficient effort is made to uplift their economic position.

Chinese are frustrated that despite the fact that major shareholders of many large corporations are already bumiputeras and/or government controlled, fingers are still pointing at them for allegedly being unwilling to share the economic pie with bumiputeras.

Unsuspecting Malays who take the government's official data on equity ownership as the whole truth and are thus dissatisfied that bumiputeras who constitute 65 percent of the population own only 24 percent of share capital of limited companies in the country whereas the minority groups (and foreigners) own 76 percent.

The overriding objective of the NEP is national unity. However, after so many years of NEP, it is unfortunate and saddening that some influential figures in the three major ethnic groups are unhappy with the results of NEP. The reasons for their dissatisfaction can be directly opposite to one another, something like ...

Was it an honest admission of failure or just a convenient pretext to justify the continued implementation of programmes to benefit certain well-connected elites?

Government in any part of the world is usually quick to claim credit for any success. However, in the case of Malaysia, with regard to the achievement of 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership target, the government seemed to be more inclined to declare "failure".

Has 30pct bumi equity target been achieved? At the outset, we wish to make it abundantly clear that we fully support the New Economic Policy (NEP) objective of eradicating poverty irrespective of race and we completely agree with the 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership target. In a multiracial country, social engineering using affirmative action to uplift the economic status of a lagging community is necessary. We do not doubt the noble intention of the founding fathers of NEP and we believe the objectives can be achieved if right policies are formulated and implemented.

What Hishammuddin should have raised was the need to focus attention on the ways to stem the serious decline of education standards in Malaysia, clearly something that his office has the power to address.This debate about a new NEP appears to have been raised merely to mobilise support, more from within the party than from the larger Malay Malaysian community. However, Umno would do well to remember that the rapid decline it received in Malay Malaysian support in 1999 was widely, and correctly, attributed to this community's growing disenchantment with the abuse of affirmative action by party members for vested interests. More importantly, the promotion of another NEP-like policy, conceived and executed along racial lines, would serve to undermine Umno credibility as a party striving to achieve the goal of national unity.

If it is the aspiration of Umno members to sincerely promote inter-ethnic economic parity, their focus should be on providing decent education, especially to the poor. It is, thus, ironic that it was the Hishammuddin Hussein, who raised the issue of reviving the NEP to stab home his point about the inequities in wealth distribution among Malaysians.

The policy recommendations by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi are, interestingly enough, correct. His call that government-linked companies (GLCs) professionalise their management and deploy their control and ownership of corporate assets more efficiently is timely.His focus on the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), not of big business, as well as his plea for the need to dispense with a patronage mentality and the need to instill a spirit of competition in business to promote entrepreneurship is appropriate. His desire to eradicate corruption and to ensure an at-arms-length, transparent relationship between government and business in the award of contracts is sensible.

What Mahathir did not state was that the Chinese Malaysians, for all their ostensible entrepreneurship, had not managed to develop brand names or move up the technological ladder. This was mainly because they had received inadequate support from his government, a situation that had only served to curb the rise of a domestic group of entrepreneurial business people that could have helped reduce Malaysia's dependence on foreign capital to generate growth and industrialise the economy.

There is little evidence of wealth concentration or intra-ethnic cooperation involving Chinese Malaysian firms, although it is widely believed that the Chinese work together to protect their economic interests. On the contrary, the shareholding pattern among Chinese-owned firms indicates that they function independently of one another.Similarly there is little evidence that Malay Malaysian businessmen who own large quoted firms have cooperated with one another in business.

Between 1997 and 2001, Mahathir marginalised two influential politicians, Anwar and Daim, who had significant indirect control over important quoted enterprises. The vast corporate assets owned by the business allies of these two politicians were re-allocated to government institutions or other private individuals. What is clear is that the nexus of politics and business based on patronage and political loyalty had only served to undermine the development of Malay entrepreneurship.

Apart from Halim and Rashid, other Malay Malaysians controlling major firms included Tajudin Ramli, Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah, Shamsuddin Kadir, Azman Hashim, Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, Ishak Ismail, Mirzan Mahathir, Mokhzani Mahathir, Amin Shah Omar Shah and Yahya Ahmad.