Unite or lose country, Dr M tells Malays

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today warned the Malay community that they risked losing political control of the country if they remained disunited, pointing to the fate of Muslims in the Middle East.

The former prime minister said Malays ruled because they were in the majority but said infighting would lead them to slowly cede power to non-Muslims, who may not have their best interests at heart.

“Before, we only talked about the problems of the Muslims in the Middle East, but now the Muslims in Malaysia, too, are facing a great challenge.

“If we are divided, we lose our majority power,” he said, referring to how the Malay support was split three ways between Umno, PAS and Keadilan.

“In an apparent reference to the opposition-led Selangor state government, Dr Mahathir (picture) said there was already an example of a Muslim mentri besar who took orders from a minority-dominated state assembly.

“He’s forced to bend to their will to the point where it’s as though he no longer cares about his race and religion,” he said, before breaking fast at Felda D’saji here with the Muslim Welfare Organisation Malaysia (Perkim).

He added that it was not unlikely that the country could end up the same way if Malays kept eroding their demographic clout by bickering among themselves.

“Other parties have the opportunity to use this bad blood between Muslims to strengthen their position and even seize power,” he said, citing historical examples of how foreign powers managed to take over Malaysia with ease.

“Maybe one day the Friday sermon will feature the name of a non-Muslim head of state.”

The former Umno president gave the example of Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng’s name being used in sermons to show what the future held for Malays if they gave up power to non-Muslims, saying he believed sermons in mosques should cite the name of a Muslim head of state.

“I’m not a racist who wants to incite Muslim hatred towards non-Muslims but we have certain rights that other parties must respect.

“And respect only comes if we are strong and in power.”

Dr Mahathir also hit out at Malays who were willing to sell out their race to non-Muslims for political gain.

“Nowadays, we are willing to sell ourselves to anyone so long as we get some personal benefit,” he said.

Without naming PAS, he chastised the Islamist group for refusing to engage in Malay unity talks with Umno and choosing instead to team up with DAP.

“They’d rather make foes of other Muslims than those who see Islam as the enemy and have stated clearly that they reject any effort to make Malaysia an Islamic state,” he said.

“Those who used to say Muslims who cooperate with non-Muslims are kafir... are now doing the same thing.” - The Malaysian Insider