Mahdzir: Not racist for Umno to struggle for the Malays

UMNO AGM | Umno does not need to change its fundamental struggle for the Malays and bumiputera as it not racist to do so, said Umno vice-president Mahdzir Khalid.

Many political parties are based on ethnicity, he told Malaysiakini in an interview.

"The parties in Malaysia were established due to lineage or nationality. Umno is a Malay-based (party), so is Bersatu. While DAP is (a) Chinese (based party) and PKR can be labelled as (a) multiracial (party)," he said.

"When we became the government, all ethnicities benefitted from policies by the BN government. (We) would not adopt an open economy and a capitalist economy that cut across all races if (we) were racist," he said.

"The ethnicity issue did not exist [...] what we have is a growing and bigger Malay support, this after Umno become the opposition and we will work together with PAS. (The government) are worried that (we) will come to power," said Mahdzir (above).

To a question, he said the Muafakat Nasional pact with PAS has proven to be effective because their political rivals are now uneasy about the cooperation among the opposition bloc.

He said the people clearly sent out a signal that they accepted Muafakat Nasional which contributed to the victory of BN in the recently concluded Tanjung Piai by-election.

Malaysia is a multiracial and multi-religion country with Malays the majority, added the former education minister.

"Umno does not need to change (its Malay struggle). The political dominance by Malays is needed because Malays are the majority.

"It is not because we do not want other races but we can work together in a government that is dominated by the Malays," explained Mahdzir.

In contrast, he claimed Bersatu, the Malay-based party in the Pakatan Harapan coalition would not receive as much support as Umno.

This could be seen at the Tanjung Piai by-election where the MCA candidate from BN defeated Bersatu candidate from Harapan, he said. - Mkini