The prime minister has been urged to scrap the New Economic Policy (NEP) after a latest official figure confirmed that bumiputera equity ownership on Bursa Malaysia has hit 36.64 percent last year.

"Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi) should act as a leader for all Malaysians and not just the Malays. He should tell the Umno general assembly next week that the NEP should be reviewed or even scrapped," said Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang in a statement today.

On Tuesday, Deputy Finance Minister Dr Awang Adek Hussin revealed in the House that bumiputera share ownership on the Bursa Malaysia reached 36.64 percent as at Dec 31 last year. These shares were valued at RM78.4 billion.

In his reply to a question from Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (BN-Gua Musang), the deputy minister also said the non-bumiputeras held 46.91 percent of shares (worth RM100.4 billion), while foreign ownership accounted for 16.45 percent (RM35.2 billion).

Lim said the figures provided by Awang Adek was an underestimation to the actual wealth held by the bumiputeras.

"As these figures are based on par value, the percentage of bumiputera corporate equity ownership would be very much higher if based on market value," argued the opposition leader, who is also the Ipoh Timor MP.

What an irony!

On the same day of Awang Adek's revelation, his colleague, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Suliman dismissed a research findings made by Universiti Malaya academician Dr M Fazilah Abdul Samad on the bumiputera equity ownership.

"Why is Abdul Rahman rubbishing the Fazilah research that bumiputeras had reached 33.7 percent of equity ownership in 1997 when Awang Adek has admitted that as at the end of last year, bumiputera equity ownership had reached 36.64 percent?" Lim asked.

Abdul Rahman has said in his winding-up speech in the Dewan Rakyat that the methodology used in Fazilah's research was flawed since she did not cover the non-listed companies and did not differentiate between the bumiputera ownership and government-owned shares.

However, Fazilah's study did not include the government-linked companies under bumiputera ownership as claimed by Abdul Rahman.

The researcher had put the government-held ownership at 9.5 percent in 1997 under another category.

"Abdul Rahman is wrong and clearly he has not read or understood the Fazilah research," said Lim.

Following the revelation of the latest figure on Tuesday, key politicians have demanded the government to discontinue the racial-based affirmative action policies under NEP.

The debate on whether the 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership as targeted under the NEP has been reached began with a report done by think-tank Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli), which was first reported by malaysiakini on Sept 23.

The Asli report estimated the bumiputera equity ownership at 45 percent, almost doubled the government's figure of 18.9 percent last year.