Malays forget other communities contributed to Malaysia’s development, says Ku Li

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah says the Malay community has conveniently forgotten the contributions of other Malaysians. – The Malaysian Insider filepic, September 16, 2015.The Malays have conveniently forgotten that other races in the country has contributed to the country's development, said veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, just hours before the planned 'red shirt' rally is held to supposedly unite the community against threats.

In describing the Malays as having a "blinkered view" of other Malaysian communities, the Gua Musang MP said the community chose to forget that other Malaysians have accepted the Malay hierarchical stacking order with the ruler at the apex.

"In our desire to remain on top of things, we conveniently forget that our other Malaysians have contributed more than their fair share in the service of the country.

"We choose to forget that there are other Malaysians, who upon coming to these fair shores, adapted and assimilated themselves into the dominant native culture," he said in his keynote address at a conference on national unity in Kuala Lumpur today.

"But the Malays, to my mind, are short on confidence and this makes us a scared lot, especially in our relationship and interaction with other Malaysians."

In a harsh assessment of the community which formed 50% of the country's 30 million population, Tengku Razaleigh, better known as Ku Li, said the Malays are given to jealousy and are not above harbouring ill will among themselves.

This, he said, had become a marked characteristic of the Malay psyche which had found its way into politics.

The Kelantan prince also said it was common for religion to be used in Malay politics in an effort to attract mass support.

However, he expressed sadness that religious issues are sometimes given different explanations by the ulama to suit their political leanings, and these often lead to confusion.

"It does not help that these religious scholars sometimes do not fully explain the backgrounds to such issues, which leaves those who are not familiar with the intricacy of the religion having wrong ideas about it," he said.

As such, he said it is time that the ulama addressed issues of religious concern with clarity and avoid the confusion that befuddles the people.

"More importantly, these ulama, cannot willy-nilly make religious pronouncements which are in effect fatwas. Such an authoritative ruling of Islamic law can only be made with the assent of the Sultan who is the head of Islam for his state," he added.