Updated version

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad told Parliament this morning he stands by his Merdeka Day speech in which he had likened the Chinese lobby group Suqiu to "communists in the past" and the extremist Al-Ma'unah cult.

However, he stressed that he directed this rebuke at Suqiu and its leaders only, and not at the Chinese community as a whole.

If the Chinese community feels hurt by my remarks which had been cleverly played up by the media and the Chinese press, I'm sorry," Mahathir said in reply to questions by MP for Kota Melaka Kerk Kim Hock who sought clarification from the prime minister what he meant by his statement relating to Suqiu and if he (Mahathir) was aware the statement had hurt the feelings of the Chinese community.

Kerk called on the prime minister to retract his statement and apologise to the Chinese community without conditions.

Suqiu (the Malaysian Chinese Organisation Election Appeals) represents more than 2,000 Chinese bodies and had prepared a memorandum containing a [#1]17-point[/#] appeal which was presented to the government before the November 1999 general elections.

Mahathir, in defending his Merdeka Day speech delivered over national television on Aug 30 (the eve of Independence Day), said he made the comparision of Suqiu with the communists as "they did not heed my advice not to raise sensitive issues". {PM likens Suqiu's action to communists and Al-Ma'unah, Aug 30)

The Suqiu leaders also did not respect the country's social contract as well as government's policies and directives, he added.

Mahathir stated that he likened Suqiu to the Al-Ma'unah as they did not respect other races in the country by "questioning Malay special rights".

'Chinese media played up issue'

However, the prime minister said his comments were directed only at Suqiu and its leaders, but Suqiu and the Chinese media had cleverly played up this issue so that it appeared that his statement was directed at the Chinese community as a whole.

He stressed that he was still of the opinion that Suqiu must be reproached for challenging the country's social contract and its attempt to grab everything for one race through their so-called policy of equality and meritocracy, a method that had been rejected by the Malays half a century ago.

He said that the Malays had cooperated with the Chinese and Indians in MCA and MIC in the past to reject the concept of property ownership by the state and a socialist system.

"More than a million non-Malays were given citizenship status after they agreed and recognised the Malays as bumiputras with special rights," said Mahathir.

"The Malays were willing to dilute their dominance in politics because they wanted to recognise the rights of non-Malays and accept a multi-racial country," he added.

Mahathir said this agreement and social contract made it possible for all the three races to fight for Independence together.

Regrettably, after Independence, Mahathir said, not much had been achieved by the Malays and other Bumiputras and they were left behind in all fields especially education and business, owning only one percent of the country's wealth.

"This led to the 1969 racial riots because one race felt insecure, said Mahathir. The Malays were also insulted by certain parties and felt that they would lose their grip on power, he added.

Mahathir said that most people thought Malaysia would not recover from the racial riots of 1969 and that the country would always be unstable.

"However, the wisdom of the alliance leaders to invite other leaders to join in discussions encouraged cooperation between the races," he said.

NEP to overcome inequality

"The discussions brought about the New Economic Policy which was a new approach to solve the problem of inequality between the races," he added.

He said that although 60 percent of Malaysians consisted of Malays and other Bumiputra groups, the NEP only allocated 30 percent of the country's economic wealth for Malays. To achieve this aim, he added, several affirmative action plans had to be implemented.

For example, Mahathir said, in order to increase the economic growth of the Bumiputras from one to 30 percent, a growth of 3,000 percent in 20 years was necessary. For the non-Bumiputras, a growth of 33 percent in 20 years was sufficient to achieve a 40 percent growth.

Mahathir said that out of the 20 percent achieved by the Malays in the business sector, 17 percent are owned by government agents and only three percent are owned by Malay individuals. Non-Malays have achieved more than 40 percent of the New Economic Policy.

He said that if the government got rid of the affirmative action, the performance of the Malays and Bumiputras would decline.

"They will return to being poor and alienated from their own country and this will lead to tension between the races. Peace cannot be guaranteed and development will be disrupted," said Mahathir.

"Therefore no one race can get all that they want. All races must sacrifice a little so that the rights of others will be safeguarded and there will be harmony among the races and vast development in Malaysia," he added.

Mahathir acknowledged that several of Suqiu's demands can be considered but generally he felt that Suqiu's demand was for the Chinese to get what they thought belonged to them by calling for the eradication of differences between Bumiputras and non-Bumiputras.

He said that similar to DAP's Malaysian Malaysia concept, Suqiu demanded for equality and meritocracy. He cited the example of neighbouring countries which had been taken over from the native.

In those countries, he added, the natives had been sidelined, became poor, spiritless and had no role in the country's politics where they practised so-called equality and meritocracy.

In truth, Mahathir said, these people had been purposely discriminated against and oppressed.

Mahathir said that as prime minister he was responsible for the peace and stability of the country and any attempt to challenge Malay special rights would bring about instability.

The situation was diffused because he had prevented Umno Youth and other Malay groups from protesting aggressively.

Kerk reminded Mahathir that the issue of affirmative action raised by Suqiu was that affirmative action should be implemented on the needy and not according to race in the spirit of Bangsa Malaysia initiated by Mahathir himself.

He claimed that Mahathir's stand on Suqiu was baseless and requested the prime minister to explain his (Mahathir's) reaction to Suqiu when MCA, Gerakan and SUPP had endorsed Suqiu's appeal before the last general elections.

He also told Mahathir that Barisan Nasional had lost in Lunas because of the Chinese voters who wanted to send a strong message of protest to Mahathir and the ruling party.

At this point, Mahathir admitted defeat at Lunas but accused the Opposition of lies, slander and politicising the Vision School concept during the campaign to win Chinese support.

Suqiu's representation questioned

He questioned Suqiu on whether they had met and discussed their demands with all the 2,000 organisations and thought about their appeals thoroughly.

"There is no report whatsoever that everyone had agreed to the Suqiu's demands," said Mahathir, adding that only a memorandum was sent to him by a group of people.

He repeated his justification on affirmative action and refuted claims that his meeting with the Suqiu leaders was a monologue. (Suqiu is not communist, PM told, Sept 15)

He said he had invited them to explain their demands and the meeting ended on a friendly note.