MALAYSIANS must stop asking the government for incentives, as success is driven by a person’s own effort, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

He said he kept hearing questions about what incentives the government could give whenever he met people and it was the wrong kind of mentality to have.

“When we try to tell people how to make more money, they ask me, are you going to give some incentives? 

“We are telling them to make more money. What incentive do you want? That is the incentive – to make more money. 

“Everybody wants incentives, even to eat, you want an incentive to eat, incentive to whatever. It is a mentality that is wrong,” he said when launching the National Policy on Industry 4.0 in Kuala Lumpur today.

Today, he was again asked at the launch about government incentives to help industries, since adapt to Industry 4.0 would result in businesses incurring extra costs.

The Industry 4.0 policy is the government’s plan for the manufacturing sector to stay competitive amid the convergence of digital, physical and biological spheres, dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution by economists.

Dr Mahathir said if Malaysians continued to depend on government incentives and subsidies, they would never achieve anything based on their merits.

He said this attitude was a bad one cultivated by the previous government, which took profits and gave it to people.

“You don’t work you also get RM500. If Malaysians become like that, very soon they can’t even think, they can’t even move, they can’t do anything for themselves because they will always be looking for subsidies.”

Dr Mahathir, who is  Bersatu president, also addressed reactions to a statement on Malay supremacy by party Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

Dr Mahathir said the Malays should work hard without harping on Malay supremacy and the community’s constitutional position and special privileges.

“I’ve told the Malays before, there is no use talking about Malay supremacy if you continue to work as somebody’ else’s coolie.

“If you want to be the boss, you have to gain knowledge, work hard, have good work ethics, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t follow the example of the former prime minister,” he said.

Syed Saddiq last week had made a remark that the “era” of Malay supremacy had ended now that Malaysia under a new government was working towards equal opportunities for all in society. – October 31, 2018.