KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's raft of affirmative action policies that largely benefit the Malay majority can be done away with if inter-racial wealth disparity is reduced as espoused under Wawasan 2020, said the three-decade-old vision's architect Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

But endemic corruption has hampered progress towards becoming a developed nation and attempts to redistribute wealth that began half a century ago under the controversial New Economic Policy (NEP), the former premier told The Sunday Times.