Former Umno leader and federal minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir today blamed rising racial tension “solely” on the BN, saying it was “engineered”.

“In fact, the government is solely responsible for the deterioration in race relations and the rising racial and religious tension.

“The government decided that they could turn around the situation and win back the support of the voters, especially the Malay voters, by playing the racial and religious cards,” said Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, who is the president of the newly-formed Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia.

Citing various incidents such as the pig’s heads and cow’s heads incidents, he said the situation was planned and encouraged.

“It is obvious that the way the whole of the above situation is being played on, it must have been planned, encouraged, engineered and funded by influential sources.

“That is how it is done, obviously,” he said.

He said this was “proven” by the fact that issues of race and religion were being highlighted and exaggerated by the mainstream media, that he said was “now 100 percent directly or indirectly controlled by the Barisan Nasional”, which further increased tensions between races.

“This view is truly proven if one has followed the contents and reports of the BN-controlled mainstream media.

“Issues of race and religion are highlighted and exaggerated all the time and in such a way as to further stoke anger and ill-will amongst the various races,” he said.

NONE He was responding to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s comments that Malaysia is more race conscious than before owing to Najib’s liberalisation.

Abdul Kadir ( left ) also declared that genuine liberalisation of the country must start with freeing the mass media.

“If Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is sincere about liberalisation, he must start by freeing our very tightly controlled mainstream media - which is now 100 percent directly or indirectly controlled by the Barisan Nasional,” he stated.

The Kedah based Abdul Kadir left Umno in March, having been involved in with the party since 1969.

Claiming an attempt to revive multiracial politics, he launched Ikatan on June 7 with the aim of forging unity among Malaysians.