Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has called on the Malays to discard their defensive mindset and chase after progress.

He said for decades, the Malay political identity has been dominated by defending Malay rights and the need to aid those who are left behind economically.

However, Khairy said, this should not be the only struggle for the Malays.

"Surely, we don't want to be so defensive, and for Malay polemics to be only about always being weak and in need of continuous assistance?

"I don't think so,” he added in his speech at the Umno Youth annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

The youth and sports minister emphasised that the Malays should not be a race that is anti-knowledge, anti-competition and seeking for a “crutch” to aid them.

'Set the pace of progress'

As such, he said, in line with the National Transformation 2050 (TN50) goal set by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, Malays must become a race that sets the pace of progress and agendas, besides becoming more competitive.

TN50 was announced by Najib during Budget 2017 as part of efforts to chart the country's future.

Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said it was the successor of Vision 2020, which was laid out by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Shahrizat hoped that under TN50, there would be a focus on holistic education for the betterment of society.

Separately, Puteri Umno chief Mas Ermiyati said the Puteri and Youth wings must commit to efforts under TN50, even though she and Khairy would be over 70 years old by the time it came to fruition.

Meanwhile throughout his speech Khairy thanked Najib 11 times.

Each thank you came after he played a clip of past speeches by Najib, which he said showed that the prime minister listened to youths.

This included the implementation of minimum wage, introducing policies to make home ownership for youths easier and amending the University and University Colleges Act (UUCA) to allow students to participate in off-campus politics.

"Thank you prime minister," Khairy said, repeatedly.

Additional reporting by Alyaa Azhar and Anne Muhammad