Race-based poverty aid: Anwar says dated mentality has no place in Harapan

In what appears to be a veiled dig at former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has said that those with dated mentality on race-based poverty aid should not be part of Pakatan Harapan. 

Anwar was explaining that they should approach poverty as a human issue rather than a race-based one because any initiative to eradicate it would surely benefit the majority which comprises the Malays and the bumiputera.

“We know that 70 percent of the Malays and bumiputera are in the B40 but what is wrong with using the approach that those who are poor are poor, that those who are poor are all humans?

“If there is a programme to eradicate poverty, then it will surely benefit the majority which is the Malays and the bumiputera, but it will not discriminate or insult any race […] because this goes against our conscience as humans and myself, as a Muslim, will not allow any group to be oppressed.

“If someone has a dated mentality (fikiran lapuk), that person should not be with us in our movement, in Harapan, and if we continue to work together simply because we want to cling on to power, we will be seen as having abandoned our principles and our struggle just because we feel as if we have no choice, that we cannot live without power,” Anwar said in a Facebook Live session tonight.

He reminded his fellow partners in the Harapan coalition that in fighting for their struggle they have lived without power before starting in 2008 with the then Pakatan Rakyat.

In the 2013 general election, he reminded that Pakatan Rakyat had garnered 52 percent of the popular vote.

“Part of what is Harapan Plus now were against us at that time, but we still won 52 percent of the people’s support,” he said.

Anwar Ibrahim

As such, Harapan should have confidence in themselves, he said, to fight for an inclusive economy and to achieve the promises which were not fulfilled by the previous Harapan administration.

Earlier, he explained that DAP, Amanah and PKR were a “family” who should stand strong together as they have fought together with a clear agenda for decades.

“If we want to fight for power because it is the rakyat’s mandate, then we need to understand what was the rakyat’s mandate in 2018.

“It is not about the prime ministerial candidate even though that was signed and agreed upon. What is more important is that the rakyat’s mandate was to ensure this country returns to being a democratic, fair country that guarantees the well-being of all, especially the poor, the marginalised, those in the rural areas and in all of Malaysia regardless of race,” Anwar said.

On June 26, Mahathir, in an interview, had reportedly addressed the wealth disparity between the races in Malaysia when quizzed on his stand to push back against Chinese economic influence in Malaysia.

“We have no problem with China’s Chinese, but we have a problem with Malaysian Chinese. [laughs] They have very dynamic people, they have become extremely rich in Malaysia and they own practically all the towns in Malaysia. This is not healthy.

“You know, even if there is a single race, the disparities between rich and poor have led to revolutions, to violence and all that. We find that in Malaysia, the disparity between town and country is amplified by the disparity between the Chinese in the towns and the Malays in the rural areas. We need to correct that,” he had said.

Several PKR and DAP leaders have since criticised Mahathir for perpetuating the narrative that Chinese Malaysians in the country are “extremely rich”. - Mkini