Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed has defended the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) Agenda by denying that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is going backward to the days of favouring the bumiputeras.

Instead, he stressed that the controversial agenda is to distribute wealth evenly among society.

“It is not a case of favouring the bumiputeras, it’s a case of creating a society where wealth is evenly distributed among the people,” Mahathir said in a speech during a visit to the MRT Cochrane underground station construction site today.

NONEThe former prime minister was responding to an article in a newspaper he read this morning, which said Najib was “going backward” with the announcement of the BEE.

Mahathir chided those criticising the BN government, saying they have forgotten the past when disparity between the rich and poor resulted in the poor rebelling against the government by bringing in ideologies such as socialism and communism because of their resentment of the rich.

“They massacred a lot of Russians and French. Even the British suffered because of killings as a result of unhappiness among the poor,” he said.

Mahathir also warned that the potential for violence would be much greater if the issue of poverty was related to race.

“It’s easy to say forget about race, do what other people are doing. But most of the countries do not have this racial problem (like Malaysia),” he added.

'Malaysians getting more racist'

Mahathir noted that the Malaysians are getting more racist, with extremists from all races making demands that would eventually disrupt the stability of the country.

“We want to correct the disparities between the rich and poor and among the different races in this country.

“So it’s far better to make little sacrifices to solve the imbalances within our society, so that every race can have a share in all that is going on in this country,” he added.

Najib last month announced the BEE to prop up the bumiputera community.

Critiques of BEE accuse the government of reviving the notorious New Economic Policy (NEP) through BEE.

Later, Finance Minister II Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah admitted that BEE was the continuation of the NEP.

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