The 'social contract' established at Independence between the races needs to be preserved but more importantly to be expanded to allow our country to remain competitive. It provides us with a framework and with rules, but fidelity to these rules will not guarantee a just society or assure agreement on what's right.

The NEP was never about taking away from the non-Malays and giving to the Malays. It was essentially a formula to provide the Malays with better access to a better economic livelihood that the country was set to enjoy. It was also a means to provide the Malays with better access to education.

For the Malays to be surpassed in a land that they call their own where they hold the aristocracy and political power would be a serious travesty. The implications where another race goes into a country and erodes the indigenous people's economic parity has serious implications. Cases in point would be Uganda in 1972 and more recently in Fiji.

Let's allow for the NEP to remain and let's look at the defining expansion of the 'social contract' where the eradication of poverty among all races becomes truly the most important criteria of all.

Let's allow for the 'social contract' to remain, yet let's look at allowing the best and brightest minds and talents in the country to emerge. Identify Malaysians of any creed and colour to rise to the top and compete against the rest of the world.

Larry Page, co-founder of Google, when asked why at the Google HQ in California, half of his employees are Asian-born and a large number are Eastern Europeans and that there are only a token number of Caucasian Americans and absolutely no African Americans or Hispanics, said "We have to attract the best ... our dominance isn't inevitable."

Let's allow for the 'social contract' that gives every Malaysian the opportunity to make the most of their lives. It's not one that tells us we're on our own. It's one that realises that we rise or fall together as one person, one nation.

Our greatest asset must be a system of social organisation, a system that must encourage constant innovation, individual initiative and efficient allocation of resources.

Let's allow for the 'social contract' and practice affirmative action in the truest of forms.