Its chairman, Nor Mohamed Yakcop, said the institute recently published a report to show that upward mobility is one of the best in the world.

“The children of fishermen, farmers and labourers have moved up and became politicians, ministers and doctors.

“It is because the New Economic Policy (NEP) has prompted the government to have affirmative action to ensure education for all.

“We also found that among people who were illiterate 50 years ago, 33% of their children have received tertiary education and are better off than their parents,” he said after officiating the launching of the Malaysian Capitalism in Comparative Perspective conference yesterday.

Yakcop, who is also Khazanah Nasional Berhad deputy chairman, said since choosing an open economy for pragmatic reasons, today’s trade is almost 200% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

“When we became independent, 51 per cent of the population was poor.

“One in two families were poor, while in the rural areas 60% were poor. Even 13 years after independence, we found that 49% of the population were still poor.

“We thought that by concentrating on growth, there will be a ‘trickle-down effect’. However, that did not work.”

Yakcop said that it was then that the government decided to tweak capitalism and it came up with the NEP.

“We wanted growth with equity and fair distribution, where all segments of the country could partake in that growth.

“We can see that this has worked. Poverty was 49% in the 1970s, but there is no hardcore poverty now.

“There are still vulnerable groups, but education is still available and we have a lot of professionals of all races in the workforce.”