MCA presidential candidate Chua Jui Meng today denied that he has used the New Economic Policy (NEP) issue to garner political mileage.

He was responding to Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamalauddin's assertion yesterday that he (Chua) has politicised the issue for personal gain.

"I am not playing politics. Who is playing politics? I just asked if it is necessary to bring back the policy,"said Chua when contacted.

The MCA vice-president said he had previously raised the concerns of the Chinese community in relation to the NEP in Parliament in1988.

Therefore, it is not an issue on which he has been harping just because the MCA elections are around the corner.

"The party elections are just a coincidence. I would have raised the issue whether there is a party election or not...my track record shows this clearly," he stressed.

Last week, Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein had called for the revival of the NEP, during the party's annual assembly.

In a statement later, Chua had dismissed the proposal as "retrogressive and a step backwards", saying the move would arouse fear and insecurity among other communities and foreign investors.

NEP spirit remains

Chua said today that the spirit of the NEP - restructuring society and alleviating poverty irrespective of race - is also in the New Development Policy (1990-2000) and the New Vision Policy.

"Why do we need to revive the NEP as its dual prongs still exist in the national policies?" he asked.

"The core of what I said was that when you say you want to revive the NEP, you are implying that the NEP is gone. Usually you revive something which is gone, you don't revive something that still exists."

He also expressed surprise that Khairy had chosen to attack him without answering the questions he had raised on the matter.

"As a senior leader in a second largest party in the government, I need to say this as people are talking in coffee shops and on the ground. Insecurity has been created," he said.

Asked why he had been targeted when MCA president Ong Ka Ting and other party leaders

who had also disagreed with the NEP revival were let off the hook, Chua said this was because he made a statement to newspapers of all languages.

"I don't hide it within my own race (referring to the Chinese media). We have come to this stage, national unity is already there," he added.