Perkasa has warned that it may resort to taking legal action if the government decides to drop the "race" column from official forms.

However, Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali’s warning came just before Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak clarified that the cabinet did not make such a decision.

Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Joseph Entulu said the cabinet decided to drop the “race” column from certain official forms if there is no added or useful purpose.

Commenting on this, Ibrahim said: "We will fight this to the end through the law.”

He said Perkasa has appointed two law firms to study the move and file court action over the matter.            

Ibrahim claimed that the move is against the federal constitution, but did not elaborate.

"I myself will, as Perkasa, president bring this matter to court to ask the court to declare that the elimination of racial identity (in forms) contravenes the constitution," he added.

Meanwhile, Najib said this morning there had been no change in the government policy pertaining to the forms.

"We (the cabinet) discussed the matter and the decision was to retain the existing policy and practice," he told reporters.

The suggestion to remove the "race" column had been raised by many quarters, including Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Joseph Kurup, who oversees national unity.

Apart from Perkasa, another Malay NGO Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) has also opposed the suggestion.

Najib says Entulu wrong, 'race' to stay in forms