KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Malay-based Umno was once a party that worked well with other races and whose members once freely criticised leaders without fear, said veteran Barisan Nasional politician Tan Sri Khalid Ahmad Sulaiman.

In an interview with The Sunday Star, Khalid Ahmad said Umno did not only look after the interests of Malays but also cooperated with allies of other races in the Alliance Party, the predecessor to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

“The leaders today are not doing enough to keep members on the middle path. They are more interested in maintaining their position in the party, so they play politics to keep their supporters happy. When I joined Umno in 1969, it wasn’t like that. We worked very well with other races.

“Those days, members could criticise the leaders without fear. There were no repercussions to their political careers for speaking out. Members were encouraged to speak their minds. Some leaders even cried after being criticised during the Umno AGM,” the former Penang BN secretary said in the interview in response to a question on why Umno is sometimes perceived as racist.

But Khalid Ahmad said things became different in the 1990s, contrasting it with the older days when his mother and women of her generation women would sell off their gold jewellery to raise funds for Umno.

“Now materialism and self-interest have crept in. We need to study why this has happened,” said the former state lawmaker who once was Penang’s acting chief minister.

In the interview, Khalid Ahmad also defended the New Economic Policy’s race-based affirmative action as being necessary in the past when Malays were then “really down” and were “prejudiced against” with very few doctors, lawyers and bankers from the ethnic majority.

He said the country’s second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein Al-Haj, had “wanted to bring up the Malays so they wouldn’t feel that they were of a lower class”, with an emphasis on educating them.

“Today, you have Malays in all sectors. Tun Razak did not foresee that the NEP would be abused. He expected those who enjoyed the privileges to share it with the community. Instead, some have used it to benefit themselves and families,” he said.

Khalid Ahmad described criticism on social media against the government and ministers as “coffeeshop talk” that should be allowed unless it “really jeopardises the country’s security and harmony”.

“The National Harmony Act is good but it must be implemented properly and not abused like the Sedition Act. That’s not right. It causes uneasiness among us all. You can’t say anything,” he said.

He also advised the country’s leaders to be professional in carrying out their duties and to be frugal, citing the example of Razak staying at government quarters instead of expensive hotels when in Penang for New Year events and the Bata shoes worn by former Penang chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.