Mahathir’s latest claim of Malays losing political and economic power is shocking – Kit Siang

File photo of Tun Dr.Mahathir Mohamad. He was Prime Minister of Malaysia twice with his tenure lasting for 22 years and the second for 22 months where he headed the Pakatan Harapan’s administration.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 – DAP’s Lim Kit Siang says he is shocked beyond words by former prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s latest statement that Malays have lost political and economic control in Malaysia and that to rescue the race, Mahathir had decided to join Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) as the new platform to champion Malay rights..

“I just cannot believe that a person who had been a senior Cabinet Minister for seven years, a Prime Minister twice in his lifetime – the first time for the unbelievably long tenure of 22 years and the second time for 22 months – could say when he was 97 years old that the Malays have lost political and economic control,” Kit Siang said in a statement issued here today.

“If the Malays have lost political and economic control of Malaysia, who had gained the political and economic control?

“Is Mahathir suggesting the non-Malays?,” Kit Siang asked.

It is extraordinary that in his final years, Mahathir is repeating what the PAS President, Hadi Awang, had been warning – that Malaysia could be controlled by the non-Muslims if the Malays have low political awareness.

DAP’s Lim Kit Siang.

“What has happened to Mahathir’s Vision 2020? Is it just a conjurer’s trick and Mahathir never believed in Vision 2020?

“It is most confounding that Mahathir had abandoned and been abandoned  not only by UMNO, but also by Bersatu and Pejuang which he founded and decided to join Purtra, and  that he not only lost his deposit in the parliamentary contest in Langkawi but both Pejuang and Putra made a name for themselves in the  last general election with their candidates losing their deposits.

“If a person who was a  senior Cabinet Minister for seven years and a Prime Minister twice for a  total of some 24 years could not have a respectable following as not to lose his deposit in a parliamentary contest, is this a sign of his abysmal failure to influence others with his ideas and beliefs?”

Kit Siang said he felt great sadness reading Mahathir’s statement, adding that the former premier seemed to have backtracked not only from Vision 2020 and the concept of Bangsa Malaysia but even what he wrote his last book post-Sheraton Move, “Capturing Hope”.

Kit Siang cited Mahathir’s stand back then in the book:

“Now, I have spent my entire life and career being ‘pro-Malay’. If what people mean by that term is the dedication of time and energy towards helping the Malay community progress, especially in terms of education and income security, then, yes, I am certainly pro-Malay. Being pro-Malay does not entail being anti-everybody else. However, there are those who desire to be seen as ‘Malay first’ even ahead of being Malaysian, and this enabled them to promote the idea of forming a ‘Malay-Muslim Government’. In Malaysia, where more than 30 per cent of the population is made up of non-Malays, this is not possible. And sure enough, the new “Malay-Muslim Government’ of the Perikatan Nasional under Muhyiddin actually depended on non-Malays to survive.”

Kit Siang said that he accepted Mahathir’s definition of “pro-Malay” as not being anti-non-Malays but added there were others who define “pro-Malay” as “Malay first” or anti-non-Malays.

“But the cruellest irony of all is the news report that his son and President of Pejuang, Mukhriz Mahathir had submitted an application for Pejuang to join Perikatan Nasional as a component party.

“Where are all the Malaysianness after six decades of Malaysian nation-building?”

— WE