As the dust settles over the MCA elections, DAP Youth singles out MCA's failure to address the proposed revival of the New Economic Policy (NEP) as demanded by their Umno counterparts just a month ago.

In a statement today, DAP Youth's assistant national secretary Lau Weng San "challenged" the new MCA leadership to openly oppose the revival of the NEP, as it did not do so explicitly during the recent MCA general assembly.

"The voice of objection has to be made clear to the current Umno leadership as this will not only affect the economical competitiveness of our nation but it will also be the stumbling block in promoting integration and national unity," said Lau.

Lau said that there should not be an NEP or Malay Agenda, and that the MCA should propose a Malaysian Agenda, whereby Malaysians regardless of class, colour or creed would be treated without discrimination.

A new agenda

During the recent Umno general assembly, its youth chief Hishammuddin Hussien mooted the revival of the NEP to uplift the socio-economy standards of the Malay community, which received a rapturous ovation from the delegates.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin proposed that the government create a New National Agenda for a 15-year term, beginning next year to empower the Malays in the economic sector.

According to Khairy, Umno Youth feels that the philosophy of the NEP must revived and outlined in detail under the Ninth Malaysian Plan, in order to monitor and assess the implementation and target of achieving the Malay Agenda.

The NEP was introduced in 1970 to enrich the Malay community economically in the following 30 years. However it was deemed to have failed in doing so, thus the recent calls for its revival.

MCA is the second biggest component party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition after Umno.