Dr M takes potshots at DAP and the Chinese

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has trained his guns at the DAP calling it a racist party championing the rights of the Chinese

PETALING JAYA: Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today took potshots at the DAP, labeling it as a racist party which did not want to share power and wealth of the nation with other races.

“If today the schism between the races is deeper it is because the DAP reject the Malay/Chinese/Indian “kongsi” (sharing). The DAP wants the Chinese who already dominate the economy, to dominate Malaysia’s politics as well.

“It is clearly racist and reject inter-racial sharing of power and wealth as advocated by the BN. Racial polarization has become more pronounced as a result.  It will become more so in the future,” said Mahathir who was Prime Minister for 22 years before retiring in 1999.

In his latest blog posting today, he said although DAP claims to be multiracial, it is in fact a Chinese party with mainly Chinese members and leadership.

“Hatred of the Malays was whipped up through the slogan “Malaysian Malaysia”, implying that Malaysia is for the Malays only while other races were discriminated against and alleged to be second class citizens.

“Advocating meritocracy, the extremists Chinese in the DAP charged the BN Government  of discriminating in favour of the Malays even though they were inferior and less qualified for places in the universities, awards of scholarships, contracts, licences and positions in the government.

“Whenever Government policies such as the NEP were defended, the defenders whether in the Government or NGO’s are labelled racist.  The Malay parties in the election pact in Pakatan Rakyat were tolerated because they were useful for election purposes,” he said.

He said more proof of Chinese racism in the just concluded 13th general election is evident at demonstrations organized by the opposition accusing the Barisan Nasional of fraud and cheating in the polls.

“Despite being organised by Anwar (Ibrahim) and PKR, (the demonstrations) are largely attended by Chinese, especially the young. Within the country and abroad, Chinese youth wearing black shirts and masks make up most of the demonstrators.

‘Usually Malays make up the majority of the demonstrators.  Although DAP and PKR participated in these demos, PAS members were noticeably absent. In fact PAS leaders dissociated themselves from the agitation to overthrow the Government through street demos ala Arab Spring. The protests seem to be mainly a Chinese affair,” said Dr Mahathir.

He said it was an indisputable fact hat the DAP has succeeded in destroying the collaboration or sharing between the different races as exemplified by the BN coalition.

He said Pakatan is not a true coalition but “simply an election pact between the parties opposed to the BN.”

“This pact clearly benefited the chauvinist Chinese in DAP most, while PAS the most Malay of the Pakatan parties benefited the least, winning only 21 seats against DAP’s 38 and PKR’s 30.  Actually although PAS contested in more constituencies than DAP, it lost two seats more than in 2008,” he added.

Mahathir believes racial polarization in Malaysia had become more pronounced now than ever before.

“I may not always be right but after 60 years involvement in Malaysian politics I felt strongly that the race factor will continue to dominate the politics of the country.  The quality of the candidates or parties, the ideologies and the desire for change will always be secondary to race,” the former premier said.