I am afraid that we have not learnt the lessons that we should have learnt after the 1997 financial crisis. Banks like RHB should have been closed then. Instead, they were given a lifeline backed by public funds.

They failed to mend their ways and 10 years down the road, public funds in the form of Employees Provident Fund is once again being used to bail out RHB. This deal, whichever way you look at it, smacks of good money chasing bad money.

Given that the paid-up capital of Grade A banks is RM1 billion, EPF can set up three new banks and who knows at least one will succeed. Clearly Bank Negara must get this monkey off its back and quickly move away from its trusted policy that RHB and other similar banks are too big to fail.

Until and unless we are ready to bite the bullet, we will be constantly reminded of the 1997 financial crisis. It is still not too late to do this and the sooner it is done we can get on with the Malay Agenda. Otherwise Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's promise that the NEP will end sometime soon will ring hollow.