Mahathir’s ‘lazy Malays’ remarks spark social media furore

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysians on social media have taken former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to task over remarks he made this week labelling Malays as lazy.

Speaking at a book launch event on Thursday, Dr Mahathir — Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, who was in office for 22 years — lamented that he may have failed to transform the country’s ethnic majority to be hardworking. The former Premier said Malays lacked good values and ethics, and were not hardworking enough, leading them to trail behind the other races economically.

“I have tried for 22 years to help the Malays; maybe I have failed, although some may say that I did achieve some success,” he said.

On social media yesterday, Dr Mahathir’s comments received spirited responses. Some blamed his policies for creating a culture of dependency on the government, while others questioned whether Dr Mahathir would be charged under the Sedition Act for his remarks.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen tweeted: “Hope Dr M will read ‘The Myth Of The Lazy Native’ by Mr Syed Hussein Alatas —and recognise his role & what he has done to perpetuate this.”

Another Twitter user, Mr Malek Hussin, using the name @AbdMalekHussin, posted: “Dr Mahathir said Malays are lazy. What if (opposition Democratic Action Party politicians) Lim Kit Siang, Gobind Singh Deo, Tian Chua and Surendran said it, what would happen?”

Over the past few weeks, the government has been on a sedition dragnet, with opposition politicians, an academic and a journalist being investigated or charged under the draconian law. Critics have accused Prime Minister Najib Razak of back-pedalling on his pledge to repeal the law, but its supporters say it is needed to clamp down on actions that could stir up ethnic or religious tensions.

Dr Mahathir had said that despite all the government had done to help them, the Malays still expected things to come easy and refused to adopt working cultures of more successful races such as those in Japan, the nation integral to the Mahathir administration’s Look East policy.

“Values dictate if one race should succeed or not … like the Japanese, they are ashamed if they fail. That is why they are afraid to fail … but the Malays, they lack shame,” he said. AGENCIES