KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 ― Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad blamed the inclination to look for the easy way out behind the supposed change in attitude among Malay political leaders when they get into power.

In an interview with Malay daily Sinar Harian, the former prime minister lamented that the Malay community allegedly do not want to choose the harder route to life, continuing his decades-old belief of inherent racial weaknesses to explain the economic failures of Malaysia’s largest community.

"The Malays like things easy. They don’t want the hard way. So that habit is still embedded in the hearts of the Malays,” he was quoted saying.

He was asked by the paper how Umno had changed its struggle after Dr Mahathir stepped down from his first term as prime minister in 2003.

He then gave examples of some who take shortcuts such as taking contracts in order to get rich quick, rather than being the ones who offer contracts to reap profits.

The Langkawi MP related his negative experience of dealing with Malay workers at his "bread shop”, likely referring to his chairmanship of The Loaf, a chain of Japanese-inspired bakery which first opened in Langkawi in 2006.

He had in 2014 told Mingguan Malaysia that ethnic Chinese and even the migrant Myanmar workers were more honest compared to the native Malays where money is concerned.

According to Dr Mahathir then, some of his Malay managers even tried to collude with his workers to cheat the outlets of money. He also claimed that there were also cases where the managers did not deposit the outlets’ money in the bank, or had swindled the money by not recording the proper amount of sales.

"I have frequently explained that Malays are weak not because they don’t have the ability. But they hold on to negative life values.

"For example, wanting to get rich quick. Quick riches will only lead you to getting poor quick,” he told Sinar Harian.

In the same interview, Dr Mahathir also chided the Malays who sold their land in Kuala Lumpur in order to get easy cash, but subsequently lost their heritage in the capital city.

This, he said, had resulted in urban villages such as Kampung Kerinchi, Kampung Abdullah Hukum, and Kampung Penchala disappearing from the map ― causing Malaysia to lose its status as "Tanah Melayu”, or the land of the Malays.