The former youth and sports minister said the policy, announced in 1970 following the May 13 riots the year before, had some “good parts” which should be kept but also had “bad parts” that have to be done away with.

Syed Saddiq said there was a need to learn from missteps that stemmed from the NEP, adding that the policy itself had to be reformed.

“Look at Sabah and Sarawak. Despite decades of the implementation of the NEP, a quarter of Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputeras still live below the poverty line.

“And that is an indicator of its failure,” he said in an interview with former diplomat Dennis Ignatius.

The Muar MP was responding to a question on growing calls for the NEP to shift from a race-based policy to a needs-based one.

He said his party, Muda, had always called for “data-driven policies”.

The NEP, he said, had originally been meant to alleviate poverty among all races, and was to be reviewed after a period.

“That is important (the need for it to be reviewed) because it shows it is not a rights-based issue,” he said, adding that the NEP should at least be reviewed now after 50 years to see “what we did right and wrong”.

The policy had actually been due for a review in 1990, after 20 years.

Syed Saddiq said that things went wrong when the NEP became an issue about Malay supremacy.

“It became an entitlement instead of a policy to help the underprivileged communities who genuinely needed assistance, regardless of race.”

Syed Saddiq said that when a policy is not reviewed, it becomes open to abuse.

The NEP was envisioned as a two-pronged policy – the eradication of poverty regardless of race and to end the identification of race with economic function.