Race politics in multi-racial society should not continue: PM
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said identity politics or race politics in multi-racial Malaysia should not continue even if it can’t be totally erased.
Muhyiddin said with social media now a part of our lives, society is easily triggered when issues related to race, religion, and income are raised, and in the process affects inter-racial relations...
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said identity politics or race politics in multi-racial Malaysia should not continue even if it can’t be totally erased.
Muhyiddin said with social media now a part of our lives, society is easily triggered when issues related to race, religion, and income are raised, and in the process affects inter-racial relations.
“Everyone has their own sentiments, but even so it should not bring about detrimental effects. For example, when it comes to the distribution of wealth in the country, the Malays who form a big part of society feel their welfare has not been taken care of enough.
“They feel they need more help, even though we already have the New Economic Policy, but when we look at it now, many leakages and bad things have happened, causing dissatisfaction to still exist,” he said.
Muhyiddin said this at the "Balai Rakyat Makmur Bersama" dialogue session, today which was also attended by Senior Minister (Education) Radzi Jidin and Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.
Muhyiddin said similar feelings and issues were also felt by other races in countries such as China and India.
“There are also among them who are poor and of low income. The same feeling also exists among them.
“The question now is what are the policies and ways that the Perikatan Nasional government can do to address the shortcomings and weaknesses mentioned earlier, (so that) it is not seen as race-driven or favouring one particular race while neglecting the rest,” he said.
Therefore, he said, the government’s shared prosperity policy is seen as one of the solutions in addressing the problem in the next 10 years, including matters on how to bridge the racial economic divide.
The policy will not marginalise matters concerning women and family development, he added.
The Women and Family Development Ministry and its agencies, he said, are always on the ground for feedback to ensure targetted groups are not neglected.
- Bernama
