GEORGE TOWN: PKR president Anwar Ibrahim today said the country was once again in the throes of racism as “desperate politicians” who have lost support are using racist sentiments to gain power.
He said this was disappointing as after 60 years’ of independence and under the new Pakatan Harapan government, racial tensions are being stoked up by some political leaders.
“The country has reached a point where issues of race have heated up, yet again. The political temperature is now rising as there are differences over racial issues. This should not happen post-Merdeka.
“I never imagined that these ‘orang atas’ would use this excuse (of matters related to race) to save themselves and their brand of politics. This kind of racist politics should have been rejected long ago.
“I remember during (former prime minister) Tun Razak Hussein’s time, he had warned of the three threats, or ‘Cs’, a country can face — communism, communalism and corruption.
“But despite having gone through a change (in government), some people still want to continue this,” he said in his opening address for the national PKR Chinese New Year celebration at the Esplanade here today.
Anwar said as Malaysians, all must be mature about matters of race as it was not about having kuey teow or mamak mee goreng together, but to remain united in all other aspects for the future of the country.
“People who are champions of their own race (‘jaguh kaum’) never really bother about the poor. All they want is to make money and be in power.
“Leaders fighting at the top, be it Malay, Chinese or Indian … it would only make those at the bottom suffer. We must not be fooled by dirty propaganda that will threaten our future.”
Earlier, Anwar tried his hand at Chinese calligraphy, writing “We are one family”. Other PKR leaders wrote the same slogan in Jawi, Malay and English. - FMT
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