Written by Sharon Tan, The Edge
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has received more brickbats for calling the Chinese "the real masters of the country" — this time from Barisan Nasional component parties.
Expressing regret over the statement, MCA secretary-general Senator Datuk Wong Foon Meng said Dr Mahathir's statement made in his blog would not do anything to help foster racial harmony but would instead increase confusion.
"No party should be allowed to simply comment on racial issues. If not, it would affect the country's racial harmony and will not contribute to nation building. We regret Dr Mahathir's statement that appears to criticise Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's initiative to liberalise the economy," Wong said in a statement.
He also said that by equating the liberalisation of our country's affirmative action policies as taking over "something from the Malays is also to have an outdated mindset of a zero sum game".
He said the reforms carried out by Najib did not mean that the government was no longer helping the bumiputeras, rather "they are using another method to achieve the same target through the setting up of Ekuinas which aims to consolidate the bumiputeras' participation in the economy".
Wong said everyone should reduce political conflicts and focus on the people's needs as "racial tension would not help the country to move forward".
Gerakan Youth deputy chairman Oh Tong Keong said Dr Mahathir's statement merely reflected a simplistic, yet distorted, understanding of the Malaysian society.
"This may provoke sentiments among the Malays in that they may feel exploited and oppressed, and the Chinese in that they may feel that they are superior and smarter.
"These two presumptions are, however, unfounded and baseless, promoting nothing but the primordial tendency to resort to dangerous communalism," he said.
Describing the statement as "disappointing and unnecessary", he said: "In a multiracial society like Malaysia, such observation, that the Chinese are the real masters of the country, is extremely irresponsible."
"In his article, Tun Dr Mahathir only made statements and presumptions and he has not given any reasons for them. In other words, he only states the what, without asking why.
"For the man in the street, he may ‘consume' such statements and many others will resort to the herd mentality. For those who are informed, this is nothing but political and communal rhetoric," Oh said.
He also took Dr Mahathir to task for claiming that "whatever the Malays have now, is being taken away from them".
"Who has taken what, and how they have been taken has not been explained," he said.
Mahathir also said in his blog "that 39 years after the NEP was introduced, the bumiputera share of the corporate pie remained at just 20% while the Chinese share stood at 50% even though they consisted of just 26% of the population".
"Has he forgotten that out of the 39 years after the NEP was introduced, he oversaw 28 years of its implementation?" Oh asked.
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