PETALING JAYA, Aug 4 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders scoffed at an opinion piece published in Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia today accusing the multi-racial three-party opposition bloc of deliberately working to undermine the special rights and privileges of the Malays.
“I think it's an article which shows the severe desperation of Umno apologists,” PAS central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli told The Malaysian Insider in an immediate reaction to the scare-mongering piece written by Noor Azam.
“I don't think Malays will be influenced by such racist articles which are intended to split the unity of the Malaysian people,” he added.
The Kuala Krai MP noted that the public was well-aware of the duplicity of the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership which had failed to create unity among the different ethnic and religious groups.
“The three main parties in BN are trying to create opportunities for their own leadership, not create a prosperous Malaysia for all Malaysians. That's why the people are angry at them,” he said.
He sighed when asked to comment on Noor Azam's declaration turning public institutions such as the courts, the police and the military into Malay institutions.
It seemed a familiar and frequently-asked question he had faced before.
“That's the whole problem. It's as if they are all Malay racial institutions when they are actually Malaysian institutions upheld by everyone,” Dr Hatta said.
He added that even if the institutions were presently staffed more by the Malays than Chinese or Indian, it is “all preferential; these people want to be there.”
“It is unwise and it is dangerous to classify the institutions as Malay. Any criticism to these institutions will then be taken as a challenge to the Malay position, which is a lop-sided view and may have been the wrong strategy used in the past to get bigger support,” he said.
Dr Hatta assured the Malay community that all their rights and privileges would be protected under PR leadership, a point which his fellow PR national lawmaker from the Chinese-dominated DAP highlighted, referring to the Utusan journalist's claims that the Malays had lost their special position in three states governed by PR after their landslide win in the March 8 general election last year.
DAP's Tony Pua claimed that Penang Malays had benefitted the most out of all the three main races after Lim Guan Eng's administration ran a programme to give families hit by hardcore poverty a monthly allowance.
“We're the first state to increase kafa allowances for religious teachers,” he said. Pua is also the Penang chief minister's investment officer based in the Klang Valley.
“This shows that it does not take a Malay government to benefit Malays,” he added.
The DAP publicity secretary objected to the Utusan commentary painting his party as an evil Chinese organisation puppeteering its Malay partners in order to reach its own political gains, including top government posts.
“If Pakatan comes to power, the chief posts may be given to non-Malays. But such posts are not the monopoly of any one race, not in our Constitution,” he said.
Pua added that the DAP was not “challenging” the special rights of the Malays, and especially not the royal institution.
In his view, the Attorney General should review the “racist and more important than that, seditious”article, which Pua feels really threatens the security of the country.
“In this case, there should be no selective prosecution,” he concluded.
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