Umno Youth's passionate call for the return o f the New Economic Policy (NEP) did not go down well with MCA president Ong Ka Ting.

According to Ong, he preferred Umno president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's statement that bumiputras should rectify their weaknesses rather than reimplementing the policy.

Chinese newspaper reports quoted the MCA president as saying that Malaysians should look beyond the country.

"....why do we keep circling around the 30 percent internal equity, we should look for bigger markets abroad," he said.

He added that Umno deputy president Najib Abdul Razak also said that Malays should possess a global perspective.

Ong was reacting to the speeches made at the Umno annual general assembly being held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

"Non-bumiputras are also an asset to the country, non-bumiputras and bumiputras should work hand in hand to improve the level of competency that we should achieve under the trend of globalisation," he said.

Spawn fear

On the same note, he warned that if the government stressed too much on the 30 percent equity ownership for bumiputra, it could spawn fear among non-bumiputras that their rights are not guaranteed.

Ong said once the Malays improve their weaknesses, they shall be able to accept the existence of non-bumiputras and reduce their suspicions.

In a related development, MCA Youth strongly objected the call from its Umno counterpart to revive the NEP.

It said that a policy aimed at improving the lot of one particular ethnic group will not be beneficial to the nation's economic growth.

MCA Youth secretary-general Liow Tiong Lai, at an 'emergency' press conference yesterday, said the focus should be on improving the nation's competency rather than harping on the distribution of wealth.

Meanwhile DAP's Lim Kit Siang said the call to reintroduce NEP is akin to putting the clock back for nation-building and holding down the progress of Malays and the nation.