Caught with pants down on bumiputera equity issue

While the Malaysian Government is still keeping quiet on its bumiputera's 18.9% equity calculation methodology, another report has come up, saying that the New Economic Policy (NEP)'s target of 30% bumiputera equity ownership had been achieved (at par value and not market value) at about a decade ago in 1997.



The research was conducted in 2002 by Universiti Malaya (UM) academician Dr. M Fazilah Abdul Samad, and it was based on a 10-year analysis of bumiputera equity ownership between 1988 and 1997 of public listed companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), now known as Bursa Malaysia. It found that the bumiputera equity ownership target was exceeded in 1997 when it hit 33.7%, comprising bumiputera corporate equity ownership of 30.6%, and individual bumiputera share ownership at 3.1%.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reiterated his government's stand that the country has yet to achieve the 30% bumiputera equity ownership target, relying on the figure calculated by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) that is based on the par value of shares of 600,000 registered companies in the country.

Abdullah's half-past six government is caught with pants down (again). How much longer that he can hide behind the "I want to focus on the 9th Malaysia Plan" curtain, which is a laughing stock for the whole nation.