Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today Malaysia has done a much better job of building a more equitable multiracial society than most other countries, including the United States.

And this, Mahathir said, was due to the successful implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The affirmative action programmes, he pointed out in his latest blog posting, seemed to have reduced the disparity in wealth distribution between the indigenous Malays and Chinese.

"There is mention of the bumiputera owning only two percent of the country's wealth before the NEP and their wealth has now increased to 19 percent.

"The disparity is still there but is much reduced," Mahathir said.

"India and South Africa also have affirmative action plans. But their results are not as good as in Malaysia," he said.

"The policy of equality of treatment, i.e. meritocracy, has not yielded tangible results," argued the country's longest-serving prime minister.

In his blog, Mahathir shared a report from the Foreign Affairs magazine, which stated that Malaysia’s economy performed better than most other developing countries despite the NEP, the affirmative policy created in the aftermath of the May 13, 1969, racial riots.

"The races seem to be living in relative harmony. There were no serious racial clashes," he quoted the magazine's report.

'Most African Americans remain poor'

Mahathir said while in the US, despite racial equality, which allows a black man to become president, most African Americans are still poor and involved in drugs and crimes.

"Despite the blacks making up just about 10 percent of the population, the percentage of blacks in prison is nearly 50 percent," he said.

"The per capita income of the blacks are well below the national average.

"Being equal with the whites has not benefitted the blacks much. No mention is made of the deliberate killings of blacks by the police, who then escape indictment," he said.

The magazine, Mahathir said, seems to admit that Malaysia’s affirmative action has merit.

"Like the reversal of the opinion on Malaysia’s fixed exchange rate policy, there now seems to be a reversal of condemnation of our affirmative action, at least by the Foreign Affairs," Mahathir added.

He also accused other foreign media of publishing prejudicial reports about Malaysia, without investigating the realities of how the country managed its race relations and economy.