Is Mahathir the breaker of Malay unity? He addresses this in an online post

 

LATELY, THE fourth and also the seventh prime minister of Malaysia has been quite active on the social media, sharing his thoughts about the  political landscape.

Strait of Hormuz

In his previous post, Mahathir said the Malays themselves were the reason why they were not united.

The post has since drawn the attention of many angry netizens, and a good number of them pointed out that Mahathir himself was instrumental towards this disunity.

Mahathir in his latest post addresses these allegations with a short opinion piece composed of 19 points. 

“It is true that I left UMNO because it had strayed, fighting for money rather than for race, nation and religion,” he said, adding that he formed Bersatu so those who were disillusioned with UMNO under Najib could join the new party. 

According to him, this was to keep Malays united under a party to replace UMNO.

Mahathir claimed many UMNO members chose to continue with UMNO. As a result, Bersatu was unable to replace the former as the Malay party championing race, nation and religion. 

Even if Bersatu had not been formed, divisions would still have arisen as several other parties were established. By joining these parties, Malays continued to be split.

UMNO defeated the British in the past not because of its name, but because the Malays were united under it.

If multiple parties had existed then, the Malays would have been divided and would not have been able to defeat the British, pointed out Mahathir. 

His post has since attracted mixed reactions from our fellow netizens, some sympathetic, while others, not so.

“Correct. Tun M is the holiest and cleanest person in the peninsula,” said @AhmadSahidah. One can only wonder if he meant those words.

Another netizen said Mahathir has too much female hormones, so he feels like he himself is never wrong.

@ZoharaIshak further theorised that Malay is not an original race but a race manufactured by  politics.

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And check out the picture comments from @huxin1464:  

But Mahathir has his supporters too. “Keep going Tun M. Hope you continue to be healthy. Not many people can keep up with your thinking and it is okay. Not every opinion matters,” said @Mia9860Amelia.

Then there was @miki93niki stating that the Malays and non-Malays are aware of his services. “They cannot dispute Tun’s services,” he said.

Perhaps the best comment to end this story comes from @maniletchumanan who said that political parties cannot unite the Malay, Indian or Chinese. 

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“Political parties 99% use their own race for their own benefits. The residents of Lorong Haji Taib are more sincere in uniting the Malays, Chinese and Indians than the political parties. Unity starts from us,” he said. — Focus Malaysia