DAP veteran says ‘Malay only’ parties are a no-no

Boo Cheng Hau says the formation of yet another Malay party shows politicians failing to take lessons from apartheid South Africa.

DAP veteran Boo Cheng Hau says all political parties should opt for non-racial politics. (File pic)

PETALING JAYA: A DAP leader has slammed Ibrahim Ali for starting a “Malay only” political party, advising the veteran politician to learn from South Africa and its past racist policies.

Dr Boo Cheng Hau said Ibrahim should lead a delegation to visit the National Party of South Africa’s headquarters in Cape Town, which he said was once an “all-white Bumiputera party”.

He also said Ibrahim should also bring along leaders from PPBM, Umno, MIC, MCA and PAS.

“It is high time that all Malay supremacist parties here learn from the once all-white National Party of South Africa, which had engineered the white native-based nationalist Apartheid regime previously.

“(It) later decided to disband this by agreeing to a democratic constitutional reform and opened its membership to all South Africans regardless of race and origin of ancestry to end their race-based political system.”

Boo said Ibrahim should visit the Malay community in Cape Town and understand the Cape Malays’ feelings over the Apartheid era.

Ibrahim launched his new party called Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia on Friday, joining hands with former Umno Supreme Council member Yunus Khalid.

The former Pasir Mas MP said he established the party following calls from various parties who were not satisfied with the way the country was being run, to “defend the Bumiputeras, who are now in a messy situation”.

Ibrahim said his party was open only to Malay-Muslims and Bumiputeras.

Boo, a former assemblyman for Skudai, said Ibrahim must face the fact that Malays in the country had yet to make a mark in the international stage as they were not as competitive anymore.

Boo meanwhile told FMT that DAP’s ally PPBM too should amend its party constitution and open up its membership to all Malaysians.

“More importantly, any race-based parties and a supremacy ideology should be abandoned.

“Pakatan Harapan (PH) should be led by multicultural non-racial parties like PKR, DAP and Amanah. All parties should abandon race and religion-based ideology and go for non-racial politics,” he said to FMT.

Asked if he was optimistic that PPBM would do this, Boo said it was something that needed to be done to ensure PH did not turn out like the former administration.

“We cannot keep repeating the rhetorics from the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Umno regime.

“They (PH leaders) must have a strong determination to achieve this. There won’t be major policy changes or socioeconomic changes if the ‘mentality’ causing this problem is not removed,” he said.