It is interesting to note how the Approved Permits (AP) scheme - a product of the National Economic Policy (NEP) - can cause so much dissension among the very race that the NEP was designed to help. Why?

Because only a handful of the elite benefitted the most. The rest who complained got some but not enough. That's why they complained. The person who complained the most was Dr Mahathir Mohamad even though his son's name was on the list of names released by the government.

He complained because his baby, Proton, had suffered much due to the AP system. All this while, we Malaysians were forced to buy the national cars (which initially were obsolete Mitsubishi cars re-labelled as Proton) as imported cars are expensive due to the 300 percent tax.

The AP system was designed to protect the national car industry as well as to help increase the bumiputera's equity. But this has not happened. There must be something very wrong here.

The worst of it all is that even with their inflated car prices, Proton can run up a debt of RM9 billion. Why should the rakyat suffer in order to sustain a project gone awry? Therefore it would seem that the AP scheme would be the lesser evil.

There are many ways to improve the socio-economic situation of the bumiputera but the AP scheme is not one of them. Anyone can be a billionaire if he was given all the APs. That is not the way for the bumiputera to improve. Competition is.

I say abolish the AP system and revamp Proton to allow it to have joint ventures with foreign car manufacturers in order for us to drive affordable cars. I hope this dream can be realised in the very near future.