Higher political positions will not be given to the Chinese as Malays have yet to achieve their fair share in the economic stake
PETALING JAYA: The Chinese cannot gain more political power in this country until the Malays achieve a fair share of the economic stake, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.
In a post titled 'To Be Or Not To Be Racist' on his blog Tuesday, the former prime minister wrote that the Barisan Nasional government would not give higher positions to the Chinese as the Malays had not achieved adequate control of the nation's economy.
"In the political field, the Malays appear to be in control. Most of the high posts, ie. PM, MB, etc, are held by the Malays. If these posts are held by the Chinese, then not only will the economy be under Chinese control but the political arena would also be under the Chinese.
"What will the Malay stake be in the country?" he asked.
He said he "had to give the true reasons" after being startled by questions posed by an ex-MP at a recent gathering.
However, he admitted that the Malays were also at fault for not making correct use of the opportunities created for them under the New Economic Policy (NEP), which has been around for nearly 40 years.
"But whatever the reasons, the Malays have not gained for themselves the 30% target in corporate ownership even. But more than that, if a proper audit is made, their wealth is even less than 30% of total wealth of the people of Malaysia.
"Most of the wealth of the country belongs to the Chinese. It can also be said that the Chinese control the economy of the country," Dr Mahathir said.
He added that should the Malays gain their fair stake in the country's economy, they should be ready to relinquish a commensurate amount of control in the political field.
"And since they have not gained a fair share in the economy, they should be allowed to retain this greater share in politics," he added.
Dr Mahathir also expressed doubt that the poor showing of Barisan in 2008 was because the people were sick of racial parties and racial politics.
"If PAS is extremely supportive of the Chinese today, it is not because the party has become disaffected with race and religion. It is simply because it wants to play up Chinese racial sentiments in order to win Chinese votes.
"Remember at one time, PAS condemned Umno for having MCA as a partner. Now PAS is willing to accept DAP as a partner. It is political hypocrisy, not sincere partnership," he added.
[ Via The Star Online August 10, 2010 ]
2 comments:
Please do do not side-step the issue. The complain is not that the malays control the politics in this country. Most of us including the Malays are deeply concerned there has been total disregard to accountablity in the governanace of this nation.
It is my fervent hope that YAA Tun will address that issue before he lectures us on why the Chinese and indians cannot be given more political powers. Come to think of it it may not be a bad idea.
Malay political dominance is not the issue. The BN is running this country without any accountability.46 years of deficit budget and project cost running at four to five times the actual cost will not get us where we want to go. Yes, the BN will take us form here to where we have not been - inflation run amok. Raman
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