Alternative to Umno must be a pure Malay party, says Dr M

 

Pejuang supporters campaigning in Johor. The party, whose chairman is Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is contesting 42 of the 56 state assembly seats. (Facebook pic)

GEORGE TOWN: Only a pure Malay party should replace Umno’s role in leading the government, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said Pejuang (of which he was prime mover) had been formed to be that pure Malay party, channelling the spirit of a pre-Merdeka Umno, which he said cared about the strife of Malays.

Mahathir was responding to a question on the Malay political field being crowded by the formation of Pejuang, which was also seen as further disuniting the Malay community.

He said ideally, there should be fewer parties, but given Umno’s corruption issues and the backdoor attempts to be prime minister by Bersatu, there was no choice but to create another party.

“Umno has been exclusively for Malays, and its replacement should be the same, too, that is why Bersatu was formed,” referring to the party he had co-founded in 2016 after leaving Umno.

“But, unfortunately, it was hijacked by its president,” he said, referring to Muhyiddin Yassin who took over Bersatu and formed a new coalition government in 2020 with MPs from Umno and PAS.

“With Bersatu no longer being a Malay party since it was open to all races, there are no Malay parties. Umno is Malay but plagued with corruption, PAS is Islamic, so Pejuang was formed.

“Malays are the largest (in terms of population) and should be given attention. So to restore the position of Malays we need one party that would fight for Malays but at the same time care about other races, just like Umno back in the olden days.

“By right, there should be only one party to replace Umno,” he said in his last online address on the eve of the Johor elections.

Mahathir said Umno of old had allowed a partnership with people of other races in governing the country and opened up the economy for everyone and Pejuang wants to emulate that.

“We want to emulate the ways of the Umno of the old, not Najib (Razak)’s Umno. Old Umno managed to turn the country into an Asian tiger,” he said.

Mahathir also hit out at BN and PN, alleging they dished out money and promising posts for support.

In his final message to Johor voters, he called on them to pick a new government led by fresh faces in Pejuang, not one who led to the dissolution of the state government.

“If we choose the same government again, better not to have elections in the first place. They will just be making the same mistakes as before.” - FMT