INTERVIEW Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) secretary-general Shahruddin Md Salleh denies that he is a racist, based on a statement he made in 2014 that those not well-versed in the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, be stripped of their citizenship.

"There is nothing racist about it," Shahruddin said in an interview with Malaysiakini yesterday.

He said he was merely raising a question, instead of putting forward a suggestion when he made the comments in the Johor legislative assembly two years ago.