Khalid: Single umbrella party for Malays easier said than done

Getting all Malays under one big umbrella political party is easier said than done and is not practical, said Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad.

According to a report in The Star, Khalid responded to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's call for Malay parties including Umno to join Bersatu in efforts to unite the Malays by saying that it would be easier to have a coalition of Malay-based political parties instead.

"From the beginning of the formation of Malaysia, there have always been different political parties for different sectors of the Malay community," said Khalid (photo, above) who is Amanah communications director.

"The right-wing Malays would continuously use race and religion as a basis of creating unity while at the same time creating disunity among Malaysians.

"There are the centrist Malays who are more open and they see Malaysia as a multiracial and multireligious society and their approach would obviously be completely different," said Khalid.

He also stated that he was not against Bersatu inviting Umno to join its party.

However, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today expressed his hope that Bersatu would choose its members carefully and not open its doors to former Umno members embroiled in corruption scandals, especially those connected to the 1MDB issue.

Lim noted that Bersatu had previously used a “cooling-off” period before admitting Umno MPs into its fold.

“There are some people Tun would never accept - if you take in Ku Nan ( Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor) and Najib (Abdul Razak), that is unacceptable.

“Those who were admitted into Bersatu the last time were not directly involved in 1MDB,” he said in Penang today, according to a report in FMT. - Mkini