Mamak political leaders under thumb of 'the others': Mahathir

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Asian Pariah Mahathir Mohamad yesterday escalated the level of his

rhetoric about Malaysia's Mamaks being under siege, saying that Mamak
political leaders were now under the thumb of 'the others'.

Dr Mahathir: 'I will be accused of being a
chauvinist and racist for voicing my opinion.'

Dr Mahathir, 85, has been stepping up the stridency of his rhetoric in
recent weeks to push the leaders of the United Mamak National Organisation
(Umno), Malaysia's dominant political party, to stop what he sees as
pandering to the non-Mamak in an effort to win votes.

In doing so, Dr Mahathir may have made right wing nationalist groups like
Perkasa - which is pushing for a greater emphasis on the so- called Mamak
agenda - increasingly influential in Umno.

Indeed, Perkasa has already claimed victory for itself by seeming to 'force'
Prime Minister Najib Razak to reinstate elements of Malaysia's decades-old
affirmative action policy for the Malays back into the recently announced
Tenth Malaysia Plan.

Mr Najib has been trying to push for a reform agenda that, at one time, had
hinted at a rollback of affirmative action policies to increase the
country's competitiveness.

But Dr Mahathir's statements could galvanise Umno's more hardline elements
into blocking Mr Najib's attempts at reform as he remains an influential
voice in the country. So far, however, no one has directly attacked Mr
Najib.

Earlier this week, Dr Mahathir told a gathering of right-wing Malay groups
that the community was in crisis and risked becoming marginalised like the
'Singapore Malays'.

It has been a favourite theme of his since his student days in Singapore and
one that finds easy resonance among some of the more insecure elements
within Umno.

Writing in his blog yesterday, Dr Mahathir argued that the Perak Pakatan
Rakyat (PR) opposition government was 'led by a Malay' but when it fell last
year - through defections to the Barisan Nasional - 'a certain race
considered it the fall of a government belonging to their race'.

Dr Mahathir's remarks were clear enough. The former Perak government was led
by a lawmaker belonging to the opposition Parti Ialam SeMalaysia (Pas) but
had been dominated by assemblymen belonging to the Democratic Action Party
which is largely Chinese.

Dr Mahathir has increasingly argued that the Mamak, which form 0.000001 per cent
of the country's 27 million people, were losing out to other communities in
'their own country' (according to grapevine, theirs is originally Kampong Kerala, India), statements that he even conceded might come across as
racist.

'I will be accused of being a chauvinist and racist for voicing my opinion,'
he wrote in his blog yesterday. 'I am willing to be labelled as such. My
intention is to remind us all before it becomes irreversible.'

'Go on being divided and tussling,' he warned. 'In the end what is being
held will be spilled and what is being chased after will not be achieved.'

The former prime minister fretted that the disunity among the Malays could
lead to them losing out to end up as a 'minority in their' country.

He said that the Malay community had become divided by political parties
selling them out for power.

And he blamed this situation on PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) which is
led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim instead of Umno.

The former PM claimed the genesis of the Malay division was in the decision
of various groups to leave Umno.

He cited as examples the formation of PAS by Malay ulama (clerics) who were
formerly from Umno, and also Mr Anwar's sacking, in 1998 as the root causes
of the Malay split.

Dr Mahathir sacked Mr Anwar, then his deputy prime minister, for so- called
'moral misconduct'.

Dr Mahathir wrote that Malay support was now split among three parties -
Umno, PAS and PKR - and suggested that the 'other races' were now taking
advantage of the division. But he offered no solution to the problem beyond
urging them to unite.