Kuala Lumpur Feb 6 — Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has dismissed Perikatan Nasional’s Malay-Muslim narrative as pure rhetoric, saying it has done nothing to help Malays or Muslims.
The government is instead dependent on the Chinese and Indians for its survival, he told FMT.
He said the narrative had been used to convince Malays that the government would benefit them exclusively and allow them to control the country.
“Once they formed the government, they realised they could not form a totally Malay-Muslim government.”
He said the “so called Malay-Muslim government”, given its slender majority, was now reliant on its non-Malay members to hold on to power.
“So it is not a Malay-Muslim government. That is simply talk in order to hoodwink the Malays into thinking that they are going to control the country through their own government.”
Mahathir added that the only Malays benefiting from the government were members of the current administration.
“All we are hearing is bad news about cronyism, about giving contracts to people,” he said.
He alleged that the prime minister himself was giving contracts to his own relatives.
“That is not favouring the Malays at all. We don’t see any other Malay benefiting from the administration of this government.”
There have been a number of corruption allegations levelled at top leaders of the country before this.
Former prime minister Najib Razak and former federal territories minister Tunku Adnan Mansor have been found guilty in their respective court cases. They are appealing against the verdicts.
Former deputy prime minister and current Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is facing 40 charges of receiving gratification in the implementation of Malaysia’s foreign visa system. His case is set to be heard this April.
There are now allegations, especially against politicians helming government-linked companies, that projects have been awarded to family members. None of these claims have been proven.
