The most awful news I ever heard is that the New Economic Policy (NEP) is now linked to the list of the richest men in Malaysia. And this coming direct from the mouth of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. According to the Umno top leader, most of the richest individuals in Malaysia are not Malay (8 out 10 are Chinese, according to Fortune Magazine). As such, the NEP has not achieved its objective.

Let's recall what late Tun Abdul Razak said in his interview with RTM (which was aired earlier this week) - the primary goal of NEP is to eradicate poverty regardless of race or ethnic background and the target is to have 30 percent of the nation's wealth be controlled by bumiputeras by 1990. Razak never suggested that the richest men in Malaysia must be bumiputeras.

Indeed, Lim Goh Tong's family may have amassed over RM20 billion, but this does not do any good to the average Ah Meng like me. My income looks higher after Lim's family wealth is distributed statistically to determine the average income for the Chinese Malaysian household. Literally, this average income figure serves no purpose except it can be manipulated by Umno politicians to misled Malay Malaysians that Ah Meng is much better off than Ahmad.

Who cares whether the top-10 richest men is Chinese or Malay. The Gini coefficient, a wealth distribution index, is more meaningful indicator for the average Malaysians. Malaysia's Gini coefficient is 4.7 in 2005 - the second worst amongst the Asian countries, Malaysia is only better than Papua New Guinea, where inequality is Asia's highest. Wealth inequality is an acute problem in Malaysia.

Abdullah shall modify the NEP to aid poor Chinese and Indian Malaysians. He should not be harping on who is the richest man in Bolehland and shamelessly use it as an excuse to continue discriminating the average rakyat.

Clearly, NEP stands for 'Never Enough Policy' for those greedy Umno racists.