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Tun M Says Malays Are Poor And The Chinese Are Rich, Could Lead To Race Riots

Tun M Says Malays Are Poor And The Chinese Are Rich, Could Lead To Race Riots

Tun Dr Mahathir warned inter-racial riots might happen because racist feeling exists in all races in Malaysia.

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Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has again reached for the race card.

In a recent posting on Facebook, the elder statesman said the nation is in danger because the poor and the rich are linked by race. 

Dr Mahathir said many of the poor are made up of Malays, and the rich are made up of Chinese, and the two races are not close in their relationship.

Racist feelings are not liked by intellectuals. But the fact is that this feeling exists in all races in Malaysia. There is a possibility of inter-racial riots.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the racial divide in Malaysia.

He said some feel such matters should not be voiced as it can hurt the feelings of the races. 

The Langkawi MP also insisted that it would be better if the disparity were curbed early, or it would be harder to fix.

Affirmative Action Not A Complete Failure

Dr Mahathir acknowledged that the New Economic Policy (NEP) is said to have failed. 

But in the education field, it reduced the distance between races, he said.

In the economic field, the weaknesses of DEB (NEP) have been identified. Corrections have also been made. With this, DEB will achieve better success.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on social re-engineering and affirmative action program in the country.

The NEP declared national unity as its overarching goal and established its ‘two-pronged’ core objectives of poverty eradication irrespective of race.

NEP also aimed to accelerate social restructuring to reduce and eliminate race identification with economic function.

The original NEP was introduced by the late former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein in 1971.

Poverty Knows No Age, Race, Or Gender

Meanwhile, netizens expressed disappointment with Dr Mahathir for reigniting the hateful politics of rich Chinese vs poor Malays.

Some pointed out that the former prime minister should take the blame as he had many years to put things right but failed miserably. (He held office from July 1981 to October 2003 and later from May 2018 to March 2020 for 24 years, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister.)

They said Dr Mahathir and other politicians should stop manipulating ordinary Malays

The people need a better education policy and good jobs, not handouts.

Some said the income disparity between races continues to exist because Malaysian political parties are highly corrupted.

They opined that the government’s efforts in the fight against corruption are ineffective.

At the same time, some said Tun Dr Mahathir thinks all Chinese are wealthy because rich friends from the community are close to him.

Some said the Malays who remain poor are because their people are taking advantage of them.

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