KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today questioned the sincerity in Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim that the Malay community were in danger of losing everything in Malaysia.
During a ‘Temu Anwar’ event at Universiti Utara Malaysia in Kedah today, he said the claim only surfaced when Dr Mahathir lost power.
“Some of these leaders have been prime minister for more than 20 years. Now they’re saying that we must look after Malays, that the Malays are finished.
“Then what did you do?” he said, without expressly identifying Dr Mahathir.
He urged youths today not to subscribe to the old politics of Malaysia, which he said depended on demagoguery to mislead Malaysians and pit the different communities in the country against each other.
Anwar’s comments in a video clip of the event shared online by Astro Awani appeared to be responses to Dr Mahathir’s claim last month that Malays “lost everything” after he resigned from office following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February 2020.
Dr Mahathir also claimed recently that promoting multiracialism is against the Federal Constitution, which he alleged instead endorses the “Malayness” of the country.
Article 152 of the Constitution stipulates that the Malay language is the national language, and Article 153 pertains to the reservation of quotas for the Malays and Bumiputera.
While the Constitution does not explicitly state that Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country, Article 8 guarantees equality among citizens and that no one should be discriminated against based on their ethnicity.
Dr Mahathir further accused the Anwar administration of attempting to turn Malaysia secular and multi-ethnic.
