Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today defended his controversial claim that Malays are "lazy" despite a torrent of criticism.

 

"I do not want to deceive myself. If lazy, I will say lazy.

 

"If people don't like, then so be it. Even when I was Umno president I nagged all the time," he said in an interview published in Mingguan Malaysia today.

 

In the interview, Mahathir spoke at length about the need to read and be hardworking.

 

When asked if he did not think Malays were hardworking, the former premier pointed to local varsities for example.

 

"If we go to university, 70 percent are women. Where are the males? What are they doing? They become Mat Rempit.

 

 "That is why I say not hardworking. Even when they go to university but do not learn properly," he said.

 

He added the Malay community needed to work harder to catch up with other communities.

 

Mahathir also again raised incidents involving a bread franchise he owned which he claimed highlighted the lack of integrity among the Malay community.

 

"Now I own bread shops. I say it clearly, I am ashamed because among Malay, Chinese, Myanmar or any other workers... when Malay workers see money, they forget and become dishonest," he said.

 

In one incident, he claimed his manager had attempted to conspire with other workers to siphon off money but was thwarted by one of the workers.

 

"I had to sack many Malays because of this sort of attitude," he said.

Mahathir has in recent days been accused racial stereotype after he made  disparaging remarks about the Malay community on Tuesday.