KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — Putrajaya must accept that decades of Bumiputera-centric affirmative action have failed to deliver the intended results, a DAP lawmaker said today in response to US President Barack Obama’s caution against sidelining Malaysia’s minorities.

Describing the US leader’s remark as “clear and sharp observation”, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo said Malaysia must now adopt an inclusive approach to its politics and policies, which were so far influenced by racial and religious prejudices.

 “The time has come for us to accept that preference along racial lines has failed to assist in nation building.

“That would only lead to a society with deeply embedded feelings of oppression and this will ultimately lead to a breakdown in relations between its people,” he said in a statement today.

Gobind then urged Datuk Seri Najib Razak to heed Obama’s counsel, and begin dismantling laws and policies that marginalised the non-Malay minorities, pointing out that the prime minister had recognised the need to do so by introducing the 1 Malaysia concept when he took office.

But Najib did not follow through on the idea, Gobind said, and instead allowed Putrajaya to regress towards stifling public dissent.

During his visit to Malaysia across the weekend, Obama cautioned his hosts that the country would not prosper if it sidelined any of its religious and racial minorities.

“Malaysia won’t succeed if the non-Muslims do not have the same opportunity,” Obama said in a townhall event in the University of Malaya here on Sunday.

The remark struck both a chord and a nerve in the country.

Civil society and opposition leaders have come out in support of the US presidents comments, with PKR de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, among others, alleging that the discrimination extended even against the Bumiputera community itself.

It also led to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resurrecting today long-standing allegations of Chinese dominance over Malaysia’s economy, in his bid to defend the race-based affirmative action.

“In Malaysia, despite our policies and all that, do you see the Chinese as the poorest people in this country?” Dr Mahathir told reporters after a book launch at the Institute of Diplomatic and Foreign Relations.

Malaysia’s Bumiputera majority enjoys privileges under a system of preferential treatment in jobs, housing and access to government funding.

Among others, these have been blamed for Malaysia’s chronic brain drain that has seen its non-Malay communities leaving the country, with southern neighbour Singapore the main beneficiary.

A World Bank report from 2011 concluded that 20 per cent of Malaysian graduates opt to quit the country, again with Singapore cited as the preferred destination.

* This article was based on Gobind Singh Deo’s statement here.