Yet another Umno Youth leader has come to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s defence over his remarks against former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Indian parentage.

In a statement, Umno Youth exco Shahril Hamdan pointed out that Mahathir himself had not felt it was wrong to describe Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as a “Bugis pirate” and similarly mocking the latter’s lineage.

“Only after his (Mahathir) own lineage was raised that he overreacted and felt hurt,” he said.

Rather than focusing on one’s lineage, Shahril (photo) said the main issue should be on the impact of the leader’s actions on the Malays, and how far has the leader thought about their fate.

“It is in that context we should view the remarks (by Zahid) that Mahathir had been using the Malays.

“In fact, the more ‘U-turns’ are made by Tun, more people within and outside Umno will doubt the sincerity of his stand during his decades in power,” he added.

Unlike Zahid who had been consistent in his stand to defend Umno as a uniting force for Malays and also against attacks to its president, Shahril claimed Mahathir’s recent actions only served to further split the Malays.

“Compare (Zahid) with Tun who left Umno twice only because he wanted to and his personal desires were not fulfilled,” he said.

He also cited Mahathir’s famous quote “Melayu mudah lupa” (Malays forget easily) and pointed out that not many people have forgotten how the Pakatan Harapan chairperson had sacked Anwar Ibrahim as his former deputy prime minister.

“Now Mahathir is back together with the person he had fired, in an attempt to split the Malays through his new party,” said Shahril in reference to Umno offshoot Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun had yesterday said that Mahathir should have no reason to be embarrassed by his ancestry.

Aside from claiming that Mahathir’s real name is Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty which denotes an Indian parentage, Zahid had also accused the Bersatu chairperson of exploiting the Malays during his 22-year administration.

Mahathir has since challenged Zahid to produce the purported copy of his identity card, as shown during an Umno division meeting last Sunday.