FORMER prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has to stop the attack on non-Malays and non-Bumiputeras, Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said today. 

Syed Saddiq said political leaders should be looking to uniting Malaysians rather than breaking them apart. 

“Instead of dividing Malaysians based on the colour of their skin, the race or the religion they are born into, we should focus on uniting Malaysians. 

“Instead of looking backwards on past historic differences, we should be looking forward to what unites us as one people, one country. 

“We believe an attack on the non-Malays and non-Bumis are equivalent to an attack against all Malaysians. 

“Similarly, an attack against the Malays is an attack against all Malaysians because our lives, our fates and our futures are intertwined with one another,” the Muar lawmaker said at a press conference today.

Yesterday, two-time prime minister Dr Mahathir said it was unconstitutional to promote Malaysia as a multiracial country.  

He said this is because the Federal Constitution never mentioned Malaysia as a multiracial country.

“I’m just raising the provisions of the constitution. Is it against the law to defend the constitution? 

“Instead, what is against the constitution is promoting a multiracial country.  

“Is the government going against the rule of law – including the constitution – which did not mention that Malaysia is a multiracial country? Instead, the constitution stresses a Malay-Malaysia,” he said in a statement yesterday. 

Syed Saddiq, who formed youth-based Muda, said young Malay leaders in the party will prove Dr Mahathir wrong about promoting multiracialism. 

“As the president of Muda, I would like to send this unequivocally clear message that we, the new generation of Malay leaders in Muda will prove Dr Mahathir wrong because we believe that embracing multiracialism will not weaken us but only will strengthen us as a country. 

“The Malay leaders of Muda will be a new breed, who will not merely tolerate diversity and multiracialism but we will embrace and celebrate diversity and meritocracy.

“By embracing meritocracy, we are not killing the Malays but we are building a more resilient new generation of Malays,” he said.

Syed Saddiq also said Malaysia has lost so much by perpetuating the same “old politics of division”.

“Instead of fighting with each other in Malaysia, I think we should focus our effort in taking on the world and bringing up Malaysia’s image, in making Malaysia a great, a developed country, one in which all Malaysians will be proud to call home,” he added. – July 4, 2023.