The Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) has taken issue with tycoon Robert Kuok's memoir, which makes the claim that the government's bumiputera agenda sidelined non-Malays.

In a thinly-veiled dig, MTEM chief executive Ahmad Yazid Othman said that tycoons in Malaysia are only rich because of their ties to the government, or “crony capitalism.”

"They can't deny that their good ties with the government is the main factor why they had an advantage in building big businesses...