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TOKYO, July 29 - Malaysia's former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim said Friday it was time to end 35 years of preferences for ethnic Malays, saying it breeded a culture of corruption.
Anwar, who was jailed after a fallout with veteran premier Mahathir Mohamad, said the affirmative action to indigenous people known as "bumiputeras" was unfair to Malaysia's minority Chinese.
"Our economic policy has to change," Anwar told a news conference on a visit to Tokyo.
"In the 70s, there was poverty, not giving opportunities to the bumiputera business sector. This is 2005. We've been given enough assistance," he said.
"When a Malaysian Chinese, I mean the bright one, who had excelled in an exam, would ask me, 'With this excellent result, why am I denied entering the medical faculty?', how do you respond to this?" Anwar said.
Under a system of affirmative action since 1970, indigenous groups get economic, education and other benefits to narrow the wealth gap with the Chinese minority.
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Supporters defend the policy saying that "it is to help Malays, but for me it is to help cronyism," he said, linking the affirmative action to a scandal involving relatives of Mahathir.
Corruption remains a festering issue in Malaysia, forcing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to launch an eradication drive after he succeeded Mahathir, who stepped down from power in 2003 after a 22-year tenure.
Anwar was heir apparent to Mahathir before being sacked in 1998 and jailed on corruption and sodomy charges which he said were cooked up to prevent him challenging Mahathir for the premiership.
Malaysia's Federal Court overturned the sodomy conviction last September, but the corruption charge was not overturned which led to a ban on him standing for office until April 2008.
- AFP
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