KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — If Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak remains in office, the Malays here will become like those living under the repressive rule of the Taliban and not like Singapore’s Malays, former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said.
Zaid, who was disagreeing with Dr Mahathir’s claim that Najib’s leadership would force the Malays here to become as marginalised as Singapore’s Malays, told the former prime minister that if his assertion were true, he would gladly support Najib.
“Sorry Tun if under Najib Malays here will become like Spore Malays; I will give him full support. Malays under Najjb will be Talibans,” the former minister wrote on Twitter today.
“Malays under Najib and Hadi will abandon their culture, traditions and values. Tun M must read my new book Assalamualaikum out in Sept,” he said in another post on the microblogging site.
In a video of a Wednesday forum released online today by blogger Din Turtle, Dr Mahathir was recorded saying that if Najib stays in power, the Malays here could become marginalised like their Singaporean brethren.
The former prime minister also remind his audience that the struggle for the country is not for the personal goals of one man but for the survival of the nation, its race and its religion.
“I think we are smart people. Do we want to protect Najib? Or do we want to protect the Malays and the country?
“This is what we have to ask ourselves,” he said in his speech during the forum with several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the Perdana Foundation.
Dr Mahathir has been at the forefront of attacks against the Najib administration and has been actively campaigning for the prime minister’s resignation, believing the latter will lead BN to doom in the next federal polls.
Among others, Dr Mahathir has attacked Najib over his handling of the controversy surrounding 1MDB, the troubled state-owned firm that has racked up a debt of RM42 billion since its inception in 2009.
Najib, however, has refused to step down and has responded to Dr Mahathir’s accusations — several times via his blog and once through a pre-recorded interview on TV3.
Source: www.themalaymailonline.com
