Hadi believes that after 38 years, more strength is required

The PAS president believes that the time is not yet right because the Malay community is strong enough to face economic challenges.

“What was proposed before has not been achieved yet. We want equality for all races but at the same time, the Bumiputeras must be given the strength,” he told reporters in parliament today.

Hadi also stressed that the community is still at a disadvantage because they lack infrastructural facilities which in turn narrows education opportunities.

“Because they are still left behind not only in experience but also economy and education. We have to realise that rural towns still lack the facilities and they have not yet been given the chance to catch up to the development enjoyed by other communities staying in urban areas,” he added.

Assisted since 1971 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_New_Economic_Policy), are you telling me there is still need for more? Wow.

I love this statement the best: "We want equality for all races but at the same time, the Bumiputeras must be given the strength". Because clearly, the rest don't need to be strong, the rest pay less taxes, the rest need to be second class.

Freaking amazing. I wonder if the opposition can even manage a "1 Malaysia", to be honest.

Some interesting reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumiputra

Najib makes Foreign Investments easier, but what about the "other" locals?

In addition, the Najib administration is also considering setting up a RM10 billion National Equity Fund. The beneficiaries of the fund will be young Bumiputera companies.

Government officials told The Malaysian Insider that the plan is to identify new companies, take a stake in these entities, help them list on Bursa Malaysia and exit as a shareholder when good returns on the investment are realised.

It is unclear whether this method of nurturing a class of Bumiputera businessmen is going to be different from the discredited approach used in the 1990s to help create corporate captains like Tajudin Ramli and Halim Saad.

The corporate class then benefited from sweetheart deals and government largesse.

Their brittleness was exposed during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.

The fund is also an acknowledgement that Najib has to balance the liberalisation of the economy with a safety net for the Bumiputera community and a reaffirmation of a reality of doing business in Malaysia: that the interests of the Malay/Muslim community cannot be ignored by any prime minister.