KLANG, Jan 20 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim advised Indian community leaders not to be swayed by any extreme racial or religious rhetoric that would affect national unity.
During his speech at the National Ponggal Celebration here, today, Anwar said his administration was balancing the demands from the various communities.
“We face demands from Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sabah and Sarawak communities. We have to take steps to maintain the Madani spirit for all,” he said.
Anwar said that maintaining unity is not easy as there have been claims that he was being unfair to them.
He urged the Indian community to ignore the racial sentiments played by certain extremists.
He said that the government had always maintained to prioritise the people’s issues, regardless of race.
“Criticism can be given, but don’t listen to the arguments of the extreme racist groups in our country. Be it Malay, Chinese or Indian, I don’t care.
“Have we resolved all Indians’ problems? We haven’t resolved all Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sarawak and Sabah problems, but we will solve them one by one,” he asserted.
While he did not get into specifics, Anwar was likely referring to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s comments on the Indian community in the country.
In a recent interview with Thanthi TV, a Tamil news channel based in Chennai, India, Mahathir reportedly said ethnic Indians were not “completely loyal to Malaysia”.
