Pakatan rejects Umno-Perkasa's Malay supremacy battle-cry

KUALA LUMPUR - Unfazed by the relentless media attack on them following the speech by Parti Keadilan Rakyat president last weekend, Pakatan Rakyat leaders have continued to demolish the ‘Malay supremacy’ idea - the battlecry of UMNO and its offshoot Perkasa.

PKR senator and former deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said the concept was not even found in the Federal Constitution.

“Malay supremacy is a creation of UMNO. It’s not part of the federal constitution," said the veteran politician, adding that Pakatan Rakyat upheld Article 153 of the Constitution, which among others guarantees the special position of Malays and natives of East-Malaysia.

PR leaders had earlier come under attack from UMNO politicians following a speech by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail during the party's annual congress on Saturday, in which she urged Malays that being a dignified race was more noble than fighting for 'ketuanan Melayu', or Malay supremacy.

Her remark drew immediate angry comments from UMNO and Perkasa leaders, with the latter even branding Azizah a "political whore", and another indulging in curses of her husband Anwar Ibrahim.

Other UMNO leaders claimed the phrase “Malay supremacy” was coined to protect the Malay Rulers, and accused PKR of rejecting the Malay Rulers' institution.

'People's supremacy'

Another popular cyber-spoof

Throwing their support behind Azizah, several PR leaders said a better alternative was to embrace 'ketuanan rakyat' (people's supremacy).

PAS's Kuala Selangor member of parliament Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad reminded UMNO that 'Malay supremacy' and the 'supremacy of the Malay rulers' were not the same.

“'Ketuanan Melayu' a racist concept devised to allow Umnoputras to lord it over fellow Malaysians. The Sultan's supremacy is not about UMNO's supremacy," he twitted.

Anwar has meanwhile rejected the accusations by UMNO, saying the New Economic Policy (NEP), which had been introduced to help Malays, only benefited a small portion of poor Malays and Bumiputera, while the rest of the Malays and their Chinese and Indian fellow citizens were sidelined.

"If we take a look at the meaning of ‘tuan (master)'; ‘tuan’ means a person in power, a person who owns, a person in top priority, so if ‘Melayu’ is ‘tuan’, then what about the positions of the other races; the Ibans, Chinese, Indians?” asked Anwar in rebutting UMNO’s allegations, adding that PR leaders had never once questioned the status of the Malay Rulers, the official religion and the National Language.

- Harakahdaily