If Khairy Jamaluddin has his way, the old New Economic Policy (NEP) will have yet another new name. It must take all of his Oxbridge creativity to coin something exciting out of what is essentially a failed, jaded and much abused policy.

The NEP has failed by the government's own admission. Simply put, it has not achieved its target.

The other races have not been blamed for its failure. Apparently, they had accepted this so-called socio-economic engineering tool and had cooperated, albeit grudgingly.

The Barisan Nasional government has not, on public record, accuse them of any kind of economic subversion, unlike pre-1969. The civil service and other government agencies have not been blamed either. They only carry out whatever the wishes of their political masters.

Who or what on earth then, can this failure be attributed to?

Nothing has been said on this, except, according to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Bumiputeras themselves lack economic dexterity to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by the NEP, and had become a spoilt lot.

I resent this because I know that such far-reaching accusations into the character of my ethnicity does not have statistical integrity. The population sampling was not a cross-section of the bumiputera community.

We all know that only 'favoured' bumiputeras got the breaks. Most failed. I guess if he was referring to this lot as spoilt idiots, he could very well be right. Just don't rope all of us in.

So for all his cunningness, Mahathir, by his own admission, failed after 22 years of so-called trying. So why carry on then? Why continue giving so-called free lunches to those on so-called crutches? Why assure the bumiputeras of continued rewards, just so long as they continue failing?

There must be a trick to all these. A convenient cover for corruption, perhaps? Bumiputera elite double-crossing their own grassroots, perhaps? Nah, surely not. Not Oxbridge-educated and keris-wielding products of the NEP surely.

But then, what do I know, I am just a confused Malay. Somebody will sort it out for me. Or so it will seem.