KUALA LUMPUR (May 8): A year on, the Pakatan Harapan Government has been accused as being one without a "Malay-Muslim soul", a rhetoric promoted by none other than the Umno-Pas alliance. Amid this, various groups and individuals have called for a new narrative to unite the people.
In response, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia is not just about any particular ethnic or religious group.
“Everyone has their problems and everybody thinks that the Government is paying attention to the other community and not themselves. The fact is, we are dealing with all three communities and we have to make sure that everybody is more or less satisfied. But the fact remains that basically we are still concerned about race. We talk a lot about unity, a lot about being Malaysians, but everybody talks about his own race [too].
“But we find that if we treat this race and not this race or that race, then we are going to have trouble. So we will try and make sure minimally, everybody will get proper satisfaction. But we cannot satisfy everybody in full, all the time,” said the Prime Minister in a group interview with the local media.
This is an area he said the PH government has to attend carefully to. “If PH loses support from the Malays, we will lose. If PH loses support from the Chinese, we will also lose. Even the Indians can play a big role in ensuring that PH will [stay in power]. So, we have to be very careful,” he said.
This is especially since issues can be easily twisted by people with vested interests to spark fear, he said, citing the Government’s planned ratification of the Rome Statute, on which it was forced to backtrack due to confusion about its impact.
Regardless, Mahathir is optimistic that when he steps down as Prime Minister, the country “will be better than now” in terms of racial unity. “How much better, I cannot say. But we are doing a lot of things to [get] to that,” he said. And getting to the ground to talk to people — in particular “opinion leaders” — is integral to that.
Giving way to Anwar is ‘quite definite’
Mahathir did not indicate during the interview whether his original plan to step down from his position after two years has changed, though he has also said previously he would lead for as long as the people want him to.
When asked about his succession plan, the 93-year-old leader reiterated that he will step down and give way to Parti Keadilan Rakyat president, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“That is something that is quite definite. There is no talk about who is it going to be or what is going to be done. And when somebody takes over from me, he is not required to follow my instructions or follow what I have done. He is free to do what he thinks is best as the PM. I have no say about what happens after. My job is to prepare the country as much as possible so that it can be taken over by my successor,” he said.