SHAH ALAM: There is no such thing as a social contract between the ethnic communities in the country, Royal Professor Ungku Abdul Aziz said.

At a forum organised by the Alumni Look East Policy Society here yesterday, he said the so-called social contract was created by politicians and interpreted according to their interests.

Instead, Ungku Aziz said the arrangement between the races should be called an "economic contract" to justify affirmative action in areas of education and health for groups that needed it.

He said many Bumiputeras were embarrassed to talk about affirmative action.

"It's good in Selangor, Putrajaya and also Johor but when we go to Kelantan or Kedah, what kind of houses do they live in?" he asked.
Speaking to the press later, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was also a panelist at the forum, said a social contract did exist but not in written form.

Another panelist, Public Services Department director-general Tan Sri Ismail Adam said the social contract was an understanding between the leaders of the Alliance government at the time of independence.

He said it was an understanding that included the sharing of political power and the economic cake, of which the bigger portion went to the Bumiputeras.