Police to record Mahathir's statement tomorrow over remarks on non-Malays
Published on: Monday, January 22, 2024
By:
FMT, Faiz Zainudin
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently claimed that Chinese and Indians in Malaysia were still identifying themselves with their countries of origin.
PETALING JAYA: Police will record Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement tomorrow over remarks he made about the Indian and Chinese communities in a recent interview.
The former prime minister will have his statement taken at 11am at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya.
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Mahathir’s lawyer, Rafique Rashid Ali, confirmed the matter to FMT.
In a recent interview with Chennai-based Tamil news channel Thanthi TV, Mahathir claimed that the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia were still identifying themselves with their countries of origin.
He claimed that the Chinese and Indian communities were different from “the original people who founded the country” as they did not speak Bahasa Melayu and had their own schools and culture.
When the host noted that apart from speaking Tamil, Malaysian Indians also spoke Malay and were committed to Malaysia, Mahathir replied: “Malaysian Indians do not speak Malay as their home language. They speak Tamil.”
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Mahathir, a former chairman of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, also called the Chinese and Indians “migrants”, saying they could not therefore claim that Malaysia belonged to them.
He added that they should assimilate Malay culture and become Malay if they wanted to claim the country was theirs.
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Several police reports have been lodged against the former Langkawi MP over his comments, including from Hulu Langat PAS’s non-Muslim wing.
Perikatan Nasional component Gerakan has also condemned Mahathir over his remarks.
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