The 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) should not have included a bumiputera agenda, a former Umno supreme council member said.

Saifuddin Abdullah said the government should have focused on needs-based policies instead.

“As much as I like the inclusiveness part of the recently launched 11th Malaysia Plan, I have a problem with the bumiputera agenda in that plan.

"Because I thought it is about time that we can do more needs-based policies than having to resort to using race-based policies," he said in his speech at a forum organised by NGO Harmony Malaysia in Petaling Jaya today.

When asked to elaborate, the former deputy higher education minister said that economic inequality in Malaysia was no longer between ethnic groups but was now intra-ethnic.

"I was hoping that the 11MP would continue (working on intra-ethnic inequality). Unfortunately it did not," he added.

Saifuddin was basing his remarks on the Malaysia Human Development Report 2013, which said the inequality between the races had dropped to just four percent in 2009.

The report states that inequality is now generally between the rich and the poor.

Saifuddin, who heads the Global Movement of Moderates, added that the issue of affirmative Bumiputera action must be discussed even if some people think this is seditious.

"We should discuss this. Some people think there should be a timeline on (Bumiputera policies) meaning to say, at one point should we stop," he said.

Saifuddin's comments come a week after Malay rights group Perkasa said there was not enough affirmative action for Bumiputeras in the 11MP .

Perkasa called for 11MP to be more aligned with the Bumiputera Economic Agenda which the prime minister unveiled on Sept 14, 2013, four months after the 13th General Elections.

It contained several measures to prop up the bumiputera community, including requiring government-linked companies to set bumiputera participation targets.