‘Why are Malays feeling insecure?’

Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah blames this on the racial politics propagated by those who want to remain in power.

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) Madeline Berma has questioned why Malays feel so insecure.

She asked the question during a forum, organised by the Islamic Renaissance Front, where Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah posed the question why Muslims lacked confidence in their own religion.

“Why should Malay Muslims feel so insecure? The prime minister, even the Agong, is a Malay Muslim.

“In comparison, I am an Iban living in Peninsular Malaysia and my name is Madeline Berma.

“It should be me who should feel insecure. Yet, it is my Malay friends who do,” Madeline said.

Saifuddin answered Berma’s question, saying the cause of the insecurities faced by Malays was racial politics, propagated by some who wanted to remain in power.

“The strategy to remain in power is to create insecurities.

“That’s why you get statements like: ‘It is only me who will take care of you.’

“It is a politics of race, especially with religious undertones, which creates that kind of fear.

“It has become so ingrained and embedded in our society that it is even implemented in policies and programmes, and we do not even realise it.

“We need to review where we are because people are living in fear for nothing just because of some elites who create this fear to stay in power.”

Earlier, Saifuddin claimed that the Allah issue and the controversy over a cross used by a church in Taman Medan in Jalan Klang Lama here had brought to the fore the insecurities that some Muslims had. - FMT