Citing Hang Tuah, Rafizi rebuffs Dr M's claim Malays will disappear in 10 years

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli today refuted former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim that the Malay race will disappear in 10 years.

He also said to combat the economic challenge faced by Malays, they must understand that their threat to economic participation is not non-Malays, but economic connectedness due to globalisation.

“In my view, there are things that should give us more confidence that the situation is not as described by Mahathir.

“For example, Malays now form a large middle class in our country compared to 50 years ago. They also form a large professional class.

“The success of building a large middle class and professional class is proof that the Malays are capable of social mobility through government investment in education,” Rafizi (above) said in a statement on his Facebook page.

‘No one cares’

Last Saturday, Mahathir reportedly claimed that the Malay race in this country will disappear in the next 10 years if nothing is changed as they would be captured by other ethnicities, but without a war.

The Malays are under threat because no one cares about the plights of the race right now, he alleged.

Rafizi opined that while Mahathir will hold on to his belief that Malays will go extinct in 10 years, he chooses to believe in legendary Malay warrior Hang Tuah’s statement that “takkan Melayu hilang di dunia” (Malays will never disappear from this earth).

The statement must be contextualised within the end of the Malacca Malay Sultanate. It means that the survival of the Malay race rests on a leader who is just, prudent and moderate in the use of power, he said.

Rafizi explained that as long as the Malay middle class deems success to be working with large corporate companies - even when they are highly qualified - they will never feel they can dominate the economic field like the non-Malays.

He also said there should not be any ideas of getting rich quickly among Malays as the creation of wealth by the Malay middle class must be centred on competitiveness and the ability to develop sustainable businesses.

Besides that, he said Mahathir had already implemented his idea of producing famous tycoons from among Malay businessmen with government intervention but the idea had failed in the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

“We also know the side effects of the doctrine of mixing political and corporate power brought by Mahathir.

“Governance issues are mixed up when key economic sectors can be assigned to certain individuals. Those individuals need to contribute money to help members and political parties,” he said. - Mkini