‘Dying politician using sick man to ail Malaysia’

Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali launches a broadside on former US envoy John Mallot and another critic, referring the two for psychiatric treatment.

KUALA LUMPUR: Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali believes that a local “dying politician” is using a “sick” American to speak ill of Malaysia.

Although he did not reveal the identity of the politician, it was an obvious reference to Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, whom many of his critics feel is running out of political breath.

At a press conference here this afternoon, the Perkasa boss, who has a penchant for psychoanalysing his critics, referred former US ambassador to Malaysia John Mallot for psychiatric treatment.

The vocal politician also believes that National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) member Zainal Aznam Mohd Yusof was in need of similar professional help.

The two had claimed that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was pandering to Perkasa’s demands.

Diagnosing Mallot as a “sick man”, Ibrahim dismissed the former envoy’s accusation that Najib tolerated racial provocation.

“As prime minister, he has to accommodate all races. He is the leader for all Malaysians. His policies reflect his concerns for everyone,” he said.

In a recent commentary penned for the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ), Mallot had accused Najib of “tolerating, and in some cases provoking ethnic factionalism through words and actions”.

Ibrahim also shielded Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who Mallot had criticised for questioning the patriotism of non-Malays.

The Perkasa boss said the minister was misquoted by the media and he had rectified his statement.

Zainal is ‘Mallot junior’

Training his guns on Zainal later, Ibrahim had accused the economic adviser of forgetting his roots and called him, ‘Mallot’s junior’.

“He claims Perkasa hijacked the New Economic Model (NEM). By saying that, he is actually belittling Najib and the Cabinet,” he said.

At a forum yesterday, Zainal alleged that the government was caving in to Perkasa and other right-wing groups by removing the Equal Rights Commission (EOC) from NEM.

He also claimed that Perkasa had threatened to burn Part One of the NEM document as it contained a proposal to drop the 30% bumiputra equity ownership.

Denying the allegation, Ibrahim said Perkasa had merely deliberated on the document together with other concerned parties.

“Najib had said that he welcomed feedback from all quarters over NEM. That is why even the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry also put forward their proposals.

“As for Perkasa, our 40-member strong committee, consisting of politicians, economists, lawyers and other professionals deliberated on the NEM before submitting our proposals. Just because he (Najib) looked into our proposal as well, that doesn’t mean he was listening to us only,” said the independent Pasir Mas MP.

Reiterating Perkasa’s stand, Ibrahim stressed that the Malays still required affirmative action as many were lagging behind in economic development and education opportunities.

“The Malays have been marginalised for about 500 years, since the colonial powers came to our shores. Do you expect the Malays to be ready within a short span of 30 years?” he asked.

He added that it was easy for professionals like Zainal, with mere paper qualification to speak about being competitive but experience was always a better teacher.

“People can talk. Even Anwar can talk like he knows everything about the economy but I know how things run in a business,”said Ibrahim, adding that he was businessman for three decades.

Zaid the new ‘frog king’

Meanwhile, Ibrahim also hailed People’s Welfare Party (Kita) president Zaid Ibrahim, a fellow Kelantanese, as the new “frog king” in Malaysian politics.

“When he left Umno, everyone hailed him as a hero. When he joined PKR, everyone praised him. Then he had a feud with Azmin Ali (PKR deputy president), he jumped to Kita,” he said.

However, the Perkasa boss, who was also often referred to as a “frog” due to his party hopping past, defended such actions, but stressed that a clean record was important.

“Look at me, I don’t even have a police report filed against me,” he said. - FMT