The revelation of the AP list merely confirms what Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said all along that too many APs had been given to only a few individuals. But what is most shocking is Rafidah Aziz defending the policy of giving out so many APs to so few bumiputeras.

No one can deny that APs are a licence to print money because the permits are marketable and easily converted to cash. The open APs are especially in demand and can easily fetch up to RM50,000 per permit.

Rafidah seems to make a big deal of the fact that SM Nasimuddin Amin was able to get five or six franchises from different companies from all over the world to import their cars. But the fact of the matter is that when you have APs, the foreign principal companies come looking for you and not vice versa.

You don't even have to lift a finger because the foreign principals know that if you can import cars at a cost of RM11,000 excluding excise and custom duties, it is a virtual certainty that their imported cars will sell like hot cakes.

With the franchise APs, you don't even have to have any expertise in the automotive industry to make a handsome profit. All you have to do is add a margin that is not below the price of Proton cars price and presto! you are printing 40k to 50k for each AP.

What is most sickening is Rafidah's statement that it is a workable scheme which she will continue to practice. Surely a scheme that only enrich a few already rich bumiputeras cannot be deemed to be equitable. If such a scheme is allowed to continue, the NEP will certainly not be able to be achieved in a 100 years.

The wealth will remain in the hands of a few wealthy Malays while the rural heartland will continue to remain impoverished. The government should abolish this skewed method of wealth distribution and devise a more equitable system that will ensure the poor rural Malays will benefit from the NEP policy.

The AP scheme is certainly not a suitable vehicle for wealth distribution. The billions of dollars that would have been collected from the excise and custom duties should rightly go to the country's coffers. From the revenue collected, a scheme that is more equitable in wealth distribution should be implemented so that the bumiputeras' 30 percent equity in the economic pie can be attained.