Pity the spin-doctors. They really do have their job cut out for them. Take for instance, the directive for all policewomen to don the 'tudung' at official parades. This was surprisingly backed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

How can you put a spin on that?

That, as Abdullah has put it, the tudung is part of the police uniform? That would, in essence, turn his Islam Hadhari on its head. Even Muslims would argue that the tudung is an article of faith, not merely a piece of clothing.

No wonder the spin-doctors have given up on defending Abdullah on this. Their game plan is to ignore it and hope that it will go away. Perhaps it will, eventually. But it will build up more resentment among the non-Muslim community.

And how to put a spin on the U-turn Abdullah is making on the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission?

That we should be sensitive to the feelings of our men and women in blue? We indeed had expected the forces of darkness to strike back and shoot the police watchdog proposal dead in the water.

Last year, we urged Abdullah to immediately table the IPCMC bill , which was drafted by the Royal Police Commission he himself established. So far, no show.

And it doesn't look like it will be tabled in Parliament by May this year - the deadline set by the commission.

And how to put a spin on the sharp hike in fuel prices?

Already the spin-doctors flopped spectacularly in trying to put a gloss on the hike. Change your lifestyle, they said. That surely didn't go down well with those who already don't have much of a 'lifestyle' eking a living to feed their little ones.

The Abdullah government is clearly losing the plot. Thus, the 9th Malaysia Plan launched today does not disappoint those who are already been let down, time and again, by Abdullah.

No paradigm shift

The five-year plan contains no paradigm shift. It is a continuation of many of the failed ideas of the past.

For 2006-2010 and some years to come, the New Economic Policy will be strengthened. Apparently, it will last for another 15 years. The target year for achieving the 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership was first set for 1990. It was then extended to 2010. Now it's 2020.

Something must be wrong when a policy fails to meet its target, not once but twice. More so, when in recent years, the share of bumiputera ownership in the corporate sector has not increased one iota.

It was 18.9 percent in 2000. It was 18.9 in 2004.

Worse still, the share of equity ownership held by Indians has declined - from 1.5 percent to 1.2 percent - during this period.

Until and unless we examined why we failed in meeting these targets, we may not achieve them at all.

It's time for a complete and honest re-examination of the NEP. Perhaps the NEP policy is fatally flawed. Perhaps we should do away with it completely. Few bumiputera have dared say so. One exception is former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

He has argued for a policy which would help the poor irrespective of ethnicity. According to him, he was labeled anti-Malay for his stand. But he provides compelling reasons why there should be a paradigm shift.

The poor Malays will continue to get help, and given that they represent the majority, they will get the bulk of government aid. However, poor Chinese and Indians can get help too.

"There's no reason why a Chinese or Indian student with 18 As should be deprived of government scholarship," he says.

Income gap widens

The NEP has also enriched the Malay elite, in particular the Umnoputeras. Indeed, the rising income gap between the rich and poor, with the bumiputera community having the biggest chasm, bears this out.

Now that 9MP has been launched, expect the spin doctors to go into overdrive in waxing lyrical about how far we have gone since Merdeka and how the economy will soon be back on track.

True, we have made tremendous progress. But we could have done better - a lot better. More troubling is that we will be facing deep structural problems within our economy in the years ahead. We ignore them at our own peril.

But when all is said and done, one question remains: Can Abdullah deliver? Judging by his about-turn on issues relating to the police force, even his spin-doctors are beginning to doubt him.

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