Myth that Malays need Umno finally debunked, says Kit Siang

The DAP parliamentary leader says Umno supreme council member Mohamad Hassan is right in asserting that it is Umno that now needs the Malays for its continuity.

PETALING JAYA: DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang today credited Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hassan as having given the “best rebuttal” to Umno claims that the Malays needed the party when he told its members that the situation was no longer the same.

The Gelang Patah MP said Mohamad, who is an Umno supreme council member, was right in pointing out that Malays now had several choices besides Umno in the upcoming 14th general election.

“Umno leaders have been holding on to power by generating the fear that if Umno is defeated in a general election, Malays will lose political power and become strangers in their own land as they will never recover from such a loss of political power,” Lim said.

He said Mohamad had debunked the “myth of the equation” that Umno was Malay and Malay was UMNO, and that Umno had to remain in power as the party was supposedly the only one that Malays could count on to uphold and fight for their rights.

Mohamad was quoted by Sinar Harian as saying in his speech at the Sembrong Umno delegates meeting yesterday that Umno could not afford to cling to the belief that Malays needed the party.

He said it was Umno instead that now needed the Malays for its continuity.

“The Malays now already have many choices like PAS, PKR and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM),” he said.

“We (Umno) cannot afford to be complacent about the party’s condition like before by saying that the Malays need us.”

Lim, who is DAP parliamentary leader, claimed that Umno leaders had been trying to hold the Malays “to ransom” by warning that they would perish if the party was defeated in the election.

“This is a great lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if Umno is evicted from Putrajaya,” he said in a statement issued today.

He said no Umno leader had been able to answer two questions posed by national literature laureate A Samad Said on the issue.

He said they were not able to respond to how Malays were under threat when those in power had been Malays themselves for over five decades.

They also could not reply to his query on what the Malay leaders had been doing since independence if Malays could still be under such threat.

Lim also said the country’s present demographic reality showed that Malays would not lose political power whatever happened to Umno in GE14.

“Out of the 165 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat,” he said.

He added that in 1970, 44.32% of Malaysia’s population were Malays, 34.34% were Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 0.67% others.

However, in 2010, the percentage of Malays increased to 55.07%, while the Chinese were reduced to 24.34%, Indians to 7.35%, and non-Malay Bumiputeras remained at 11.94% and the others made up 1.3%.

“During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others,” he added. -FMT