While DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang urged Umno to open its membership to non-Malays, Umno supreme council member Ahmad Shabery Cheek countered, saying that changing a political culture is not so easy.

Even among opposition parties, he said it is difficult for Malays to win a post in DAP, or for an Indian Malaysian to win a post in PKR, even though the membership of these parties is open to all Malaysians.

“ If Umno opens its doors to all races, would those other races find an easy path to posts at every level and every division in Umno?

“ It is (just) as hard for a Malay to secure a place in DAP, or an Indian in PKR, although those parties have opened their doors to all races.

“ Changing a political culture is not as simple as opening up a durian,” he said in a Facebook post today.

Ahmad Shabery, who is also the agriculture minister, was responding to a statement where Lim claimed that the time is ripe for Umno to open its membership to non-Malays.

The latter had said earlier today and in a separate statement yesterday that Umno appears to have a hard time embracing the idea, which was espoused by one of the party's founding leaders, Onn Jaafar.

“ Why is it so difficult to find another example in the 58 years since Merdeka and 53 years since the formation of Malaysia of a political leader who is prepared to pay the highest price for another Malaysian of a different ethnicity?”

“The time has come for the Umno leadership to consider Onn Jaafar’s proposal 66 years ago for Umno to open its membership to non-Malays so that Umno leaders can also be leaders of all Malaysians,” Lim said in a statement today.