10-04-2022, 11:13 AM
![[Image: 20221004_lee_hwok_aun_-_iseas.edu.sg_pic.jpg]](https://media.thevibes.com/images/uploads/covers/_large/20221004_lee_hwok_aun_-_iseas.edu.sg_pic.jpg)
KUALA LUMPUR – The government should find new ways to carry out both universalist and group-targeted policies instead of trying to completely replace the “race-based” New Economic Policy (NEP) with “needs-based” policies, said economist Lee Hwok Aun.
“It has been almost 50 years since the NEP (was introduced), with this stance of not having any race-based policies at all, but only need-based policies instead.
“Malaysia needs to stop thinking this way. The two approaches do not contradict each other. Instead, we need to find a balance between the two,” he said.
Lee, a senior fellow at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute, said this at a seminar titled “Rethinking the New Economic Policy: 50 Years of Polarisation and Impasse” at Universiti Malaya (UM).
- More -