Jan 1 is at hand and 2010 incidentally the year in which the decade-long New Vision Policy ends its run. The NVP had succeeded the NDP and NEP.

I asked civil rights lawyer Haris Ibrahim if the term ‘bumiputera’ is found in the Federal Constitution. His reply to me was “Nehi, nehi, nehi”. No. So unless Haris is wrong – and if he is, please feel free to correct us – ‘bumiputera’ was constructed to facilitate the NEP.

Those in power have always coined slogans to suit their purposes at their own convenience. It was only in 1997 that the moniker ‘Jalur Gemilang’ was given to the national flag. Rukunegara was invented by the information minister in 1970. Now we have Najib Razak’s ‘1Malaysia’.

He mouths ‘one Malaysia’ when we have two classes of citizens – bumiputera and ‘non’. At the rate things are going, if we use as a dipstick the sludge flowing from Umno mouthpiece Utusan , the nons will be second and third class citizens into perpetuity...