PKR hits bulleyes in Umno's Malay supremacy scam: 96% of poor are Malays

Anwar, Azizah, Azmin

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

The ferocity of Umno’s counter attacks against PKR president Wan Azizah and her deputy Azmin Ali reflects the bull-eyes they scored when they slammed Umno for pushing racist policies in the guise of Malay supremacy so that they could continue to mask the massive corruption they were practising to rob the people of the country’s wealth.

“This country belongs to all Malaysians and there should not be two classes of citizens at all.Ketuanan Melayu has been used as a tool to nurture parasites amongst the Umno elite while completely ignoring the low-income Malays and Malaysians,” Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye told Malaysia Chronicle.

Indeed, in stark contrast to the alleged hypocrisy of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who in his recent Umno annual congress address had urged Malays to arise and warned of “crushed bodies”, “lost lives” and “ethnic cleansing” if they lost political power, Azizah and Azmin had stood firm on racial equality where economic priority would be given based on needs and not the color of one’s skin.

At the PKR National Congress held over the weekend, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had also revealed that 96.7 percent of those living below the poverty line were Malays.

“Malay supremacy is a slogan used by a small group of Malay elites who are cheating the Malays as a whole for their own interests. After 53 years in power, the Malays and bumiputera are still neglected. The 30 percent Malay-bumiputera equity has yet to be met. Of the RM54 billion equity and shares for bumiputera, only RM2 billion still belong to them,” Azizah had said in her presidential address.

Stark contrast with Najib's 1Malaysia hypocrisy

Pundits praised the PKR leaders for sticking to the principles that swept Pakatan to power in 2008 and for continuing to resist the easy race-championing and emoting methods adopted by Umno and its perceived agent Perkasa to rally voter support from the Malay community, which forms 55 percent of Malaysia's 28 million population.

Shocked nation with crushed bodies, lost lives, ethnic cleansing speech

In fact, so worried that the PKR stance might show up Najib’s perceived two-facedness, Umno and BN leaders have gone on overdrive using various routes in a bid to go one up on their arch rival.

On Monday, Perkasa youth chief Arman Azha called Azizah and Azmin “political prostitutes”, accusing them of being desperate for the non-Malay votes. He also tried to turn the issue to Umno’s advantage by suggesting that Malays should reject PKR for not championing their superiority.

“Has Dr Wan Azizah forgotten that it was because of Malay supremacy that she got to become a doctor? The PKR president is a political whore who is desperate for non-Malay votes that she refuses to explain the real meaning of the concept,” said Arman.

“And I heard PKR deputy president Azmin Ali too condemn Malay supremacy. He has forgotten that he is here today because of Umno. Does he want to become a political whore too?”

Hishammuddin - a far cry from his grandfather

The original 'prostitute'

However in his haste to shine, and to an extent because of his political immaturity, his words boomeranged and put the spotlight back onto Umno, Najib and his cousin Hishammuddin Hussein.

In particular, it sparked laughter at Hishamuddin’s grandfather Onn Jaafar, who had parted ways with Umno because the nationalist party had refused to open up membership to the non-Malays.

"Onn Jaafar proposed that Umno open its doors to other races. Azizah and Azmin are doing what Onn had been propagating. So Perkasa might as well call Onn a prostitute as well,” Malaysiakini reported a commentator as saying.

MCA president Chua Soi Lek too rushed to get into the act, issuing a warning that Malaysians should not try to change the federal constitution. However, Pakatan leaders scoffed at him, pointing to their Common Policy Framework that already states that their coalition would defend the existing federal constitution.

“This again shows Soi Lek’s insincerity. He is first and foremost subservient to Umno and puts their interest first rather than those of all Malaysians especially the low-income Malays, Indians, Chinese, Kadazan-Dusun-Murut and others,” said Boon Chye.