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Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Defend The Political Power Of The Malays - Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- Umno has reaffirmed that it is still a party that champions the Malays and as such it is important that the Malay political power be protected especially from attacks by the opposition who tried to create the perception that Umno is no longer capable of doing so.

Stressing the points in serious tone, Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Umno had never surrendered to the pressure by the opposition parties which intended to "weaken every aspect of Umno's struggle to champion the Malay cause."

He said the Malays were getting increasingly uneasy following the large number of slanders levelled against Umno.

"Even in the crazy days of slander, our number one leader was not spared from by slanderous sparks. Even while performing the haj, he was distracted by slander factories working overtime to unleash the slanderous sparkles," Muhyiddin said when opening the simultaneous general assembly of the Umno Wanita, Youth and Puteri movements at the Dewan Merdeka, Putra World Trade Centre here Tuesday night.

He said Umno had recovered from the political tsunami of 2008, which had caused great concern among the Malays regarding their future, by taking a balance and wise approach so that the Malaysia remain strong while Islam was empowered.

While the Malays were troubled over their progress in the economic sector, Muhyiddin said the Barisan Nasional government led by Umno had unapologetically created the Bumiputera Agenda Supreme Council, the Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (Teraju), the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Programme, and the Rural Transformation Programme.

"All these are the continuation of efforts implemented by Umno all this while in the struggle to enhance the economic status of the Bumiputera," said Muhyiddin, who is also the deputy prime minister.

He said Umno leaders were also steadfast in defending the rights of the Malay and Bumiputera students who were qualified to receive scholarships and other educational subsidies from the government.

"And recently, we set up the Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera to assist Bumiputera students in getting education funding. With a fund of RM500 million, we target 12,000 Malay and Bumiputera students to benefit from the foundation in the next five years," said Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister.

Muhyiddin subsequently criticised the opposition parties, describing the DAP as the most racist party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) as a ultraliberal party without moral consideration while PAS was willing to drop the struggle for an Islamic nation purely to avoid being criticised by the DAP.

"Now, we hear the DAP is actively trying to woo the Malays to join the party. They are offered positions in the party and promised to be selected as the party's candidates in the next general election," he added.

He described Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) as being in critical situation because almost all the founders of the party had left and supported Umno.

On PAS, Muhyiddin said the party, which was deeply committed on its agenda to set up an Islamic nation previously, had now forgotten this objective in its political dictionary.

He said for PAS, which was facing a new political landscape, the support of the DAP and PKR was more important that its principle to champion its own cause.

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