Malaysia shouldn’t abandon wealth sharing: Mahathir

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday warned the country against abandoning power- and wealth-sharing among races, so as to preserve national unity and prevent conflicts.

Based on a speech read by his former political secretary Aziz Shamsuddin at the National Unity convention, Dr Mahathir — who is the patron of Malay rights group Perkasa — said the risk of such conflicts happening was higher if the rich were from a certain race while the poor from another, the New Straits Times reported.

“What is even worse, there will be a race that is very poor, while another race is very rich,” he said.

Dr Mahathir also said the country should not attempt to eradicate racial identity among Malaysians.

Instead, he said the identities of different races could be diluted based on the types of occupation held by members of different community groups.

Dr Mahathir has previously said that many policies, approaches and actions taken by the government under Prime Minister Najib Razak had destroyed interracial ties along with the country’s economy and finances.

Agencies