KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 11 — The youth wing of Malay rights group Perkasa challenged DAP today to stop championing a “Malaysian Malaysia” to prove it is serious about Orang Asli rights.
Perkasa Youth — which calls itself Wira Perkasa — said DAP should not confuse the Malays and Bumiputera with its parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang’s proposal for peninsular Malaysia’s indigenous people to be accorded a “special position” on par with Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.
“To prove that what Lim Kit Siang said was not mere rhetoric, we challenge DAP to announce publicly that it will no longer support the Malaysian Malaysia doctrine that is their principle since their formation,” the wing chief Azrul Akmal Saharudin said in a statement.
“Wira Perkasa also challenge them to abolish party policies that are clearly displayed on its official website with the goal of eliminating the special rights of Malays and Bumiputera by destroying the divide between ‘Bumiputera’ and ‘non-Bumiputera’ and implement ethnic equality,” he added.
Singapore ruling party PAP’s leader Lee Kuan Yew had advocated the “Malaysian Malaysia” motto against Malaysian racial affirmative policies under the Malaysian Solidarity Convention pact when Singapore was still in Malaysia.
Lim had then called for a second “Malaysian Malaysia” campaign in 1999, and the DAP’s “Middle Malaysia” concept in 2010 has been accused of being a continuation of the former campaign.
Azrul also demanded that Malay and Bumiputera rights be respected, claiming that the majority still needs affirmative action from Putrajaya so they can be on equal terms economically with the non-Bumiputera community.
“Fairness does not mean equality, fairness means putting something at its place,” he said.
Citing decades of neglect, Lim called earlier today for the Federal Constitution to be amended so the Orang Asli would also be accorded a “special position” that had been reserved for the country’s Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.
He said the “special position”, which provides affirmative action programmes for the Malays should also be extended to the non-Malay Bumiputera who are in need.
The Federal Constitution accords a “special position” for Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak to safeguard their community interests in regards to certain fields such as educational scholarships, public service, training and land reserve rights.
However, it is silent on the Orang Asli and does not explicitly mention Bumiputera rights.
