Mahathir assures bumi safeguards to stay amid call for ECRL quota

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has assured that safeguards for bumiputera businesses, including negotiated tenders, will remain in place.

Asked today about a request for 20 percent of the civil works for the East Coast Rail Link megaproject to be reserved for bumiputera contractors, he said Pakatan Harapan had yet to arrive at a decision.

"No, we haven’t fixed a quota yet, but they (bumiputera contractors) are asking that 20 percent should go to them.

"I would like to explain that the old system of giving some special treatment is still there, it goes on. Including negotiated tender, that will still go on," he said.

Mahathir was speaking at a press conference after chairing a Bersatu supreme council meeting at the party’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya today.

Elaborating, Mahathir said negotiated tenders would be used in "special cases."

"For example, (if) the company represents some of the cooperatives that have been set up," he said.

'The more Malay parties, the better'

On a different note, Mahathir said he welcomed former ally Ibrahim Ali’s new Malay-rights party – Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra).

"We are free to set up as many parties as we want. Won’t it be great if we set up 100 parties?

"That way, the Malays will be split up into 100 parties and there won’t be a single large Malay-based party,” he said, with seeming sarcasm.

"We purposely designed it so that our country would be 60 percent majority-Malay, but the Malays are now fractured into four parties. But it doesn't matter.

"Even if we have 100 parties, it doesn't matter if that is what the Malays want," he added. 

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