KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today stood firm on his weekend address at the Malay Dignity Congress, saying he was merely stating the facts about the state of things with the Malays.
Dr Mahathir was responding to criticism by several parties, especially far-right Islamic wing Isma, which claimed the prime minister’s remarks belittled the Malay community.
“I want to state the truth. If I find that there are people who don’t want to work, which means they’ve got no interest, if we cannot criticise people, how to correct people?
“Must we praise them even if they are wrong? That is wrong,” Dr Mahathir told reporters when met in the Parliament lobby today.
Explaining his speech during the congress, Dr Mahathir said that he was merely pointing out that the dignity of the Malays would only be “recovered again”, with the efforts of community members themselves.
“I merely said that the Malays’ dignity will recover again, because of the Malays themselves. We cannot hope on other people and cannot hope on the government. That is the content of my speech and I don’t think I did anything wrong,” Dr Mahathir said.
During the event on Saturday, which saw participation from Umno and PAS, Dr Mahathir said that the Malay community’s political discord and unwillingness to better itself were among the reasons it has lost its dignity and standing.
He said that while Muslim must ask God for blessings as the religion dictates, God will not help those who do not first help themselves.
Dr Mahathir also recounted that although the peninsula originally belonged to the Malays, they eventually had to share it with others.
“Why did this happen? Because we could not bear all the burdens upon us as an independent race. An independent race must do everything by themselves, but we could not bear it, and thus, got others to come and do it for us.
“Others would not have come here if there were no opportunities. We depended on them until we became enslaved because they were more advanced, succeeding in this country as we did not seize the opportunities,” he had said at the mammoth gathering.
Over 5,000 people attended the congress, co-organised by five universities and NGOs to look into the socio-political problems faced by the Malay community.
