KUALA LUMPUR – Identity politics or race politics in multi-racial Malaysia should not continue even if it cannot be completely erased, said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin.
He said with social media being a part of daily life, society is easily triggered when issues related to race, religion, and income are raised, in the process affecting 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 have been taken care enough.
“They feel they need more help although there had already been the New Economic Policy, but when we look at it now, many leakages and bad things happened, causing dissatisfaction to still exist.”
Muhyiddin said this at a dialogue session today that was also attended by Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin and Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
Muhyiddin said at the same time, similar sentiments and issues are 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 a 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.
Also, he said the policy will not marginalise matters concerning women and family development.
He said the Ministry of Women and Family Development, and its agencies, are always on the ground for feedback to ensure targeted groups are not neglected. – Bernama, September 29, 2020
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