PUTRAJAYA, Dec 29 — Malays cannot continue depending on the government for economic and financial aid in perpetuity, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said tonight in at the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) annual general meeting here.
Describing the government aid as a “crutch”, the PPBM chairman said the country’s biggest demographic group must learn to wean themselves of the affirmative action policies that were introduced decades ago to lift them economically and stop seeing them as an inherent right.
“For the weak, a crutch might help, but this sort of help should not be sustained. When our strength returns, the crutch must be let go,” he said.
He stressed that it is wrong to believe that “a crutch is a sign of nobility, saying those who are able to face the challenges of making money by being self-reliant and prosper were to be respected.
“Do not lie to ourselves. Calling ourselves masters do not make us masters if we are still someone else’s coolie,” he said.
In his speech earlier, Dr Mahathir said he is still for affirmative action policies that aim to socially engineer wealth towards certain segments of the population, like the New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in 1971 in favour of the then backward Bumiputera.
He said that though the policy had some success, it had yet to fulfil aim to close the income disparity between the Bumiputera and the other races.
