“It does not matter if it is the Malays, Chinese, Indians or any other race… each race has members on both ends of the income spectrum.
“A sensible government ought to comprehend that it is paramount for all citizens to be treated fairly,” the Ayer Hitam MP said in a statement posted on Facebook today.
He said the needy and vulnerable should be provided with a solid social protection network, regardless of their ethnicity.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on June 26, said the affirmative action policy to help the Malays will continue, in part to avoid conflict between the majority Malays and “richer” ethnic groups like the Chinese.
He had said the government had reduced the disparity between the Malays and the Chinese, but there are certain areas where the Malays need a push.
Wee said during Mahathir’s first term as prime minister from 1981-2003, he had exercised similar race-oriented policies.
“The PM would not ease up on reinforcing the fallacious stereotype that ‘the Chinese are the wealthy ones’ in order to rationalise the neglect of the interests of Malaysian Chinese.”
Wee said whenever Mahathir said the Chinese were rich, he was knowingly attempting to segregate Malaysians.
Mahathir, he said, was playing with fire by uttering such fictitious remarks.
Wee said Mahathir’s repeated claims to eradicate racial animosities through pro-Bumiputera policies was in fact showing an opposite outcome.
“Be reasonable and think how one can expect policies set forth by apartheid ideologies to resolve any ill-feelings that exist in a multiracial society.”
Wee said Mahathir unfairly claimed the Chinese students he recently met in the United Kingdom were able to study there because their parents paid for it.
“And by adding that the Chinese are largely in business, he maintained that more scholarships need to be handed out to Malays.
“These baseless words of our prime minister have sent sparks of enmity towards the Chinese community,” he said, adding that Mahathir should stop using the Chinese as a sacrificial lamb in his attempt to further his racial ideologies.
“Wealth has nothing to do with skin colour, religion or gender.
“If the government really wants to tackle poverty, action needs to be directed towards the poor and not distort socioeconomic issues into a topic laced with racial undertones.
“It is likely that Mahathir’s words are positioned deliberately to test the waters, to gauge whether it is feasible to implement a political economy model similar to the one he introduced 22 years ago.
“This is yet another strong indication of the comeback of Mahathirism, and a failure to rid Malaysia of racial politics.”
He said the majority of the six million Malaysian Chinese in 2018 were working class, not dissimilar from how most Bumiputeras are wage-earners.
“The Chinese mostly ‘depend’ on frugality, hard work and self-reliance in an attempt to accumulate wealth.
“More importantly, the Chinese value education above all else; they will strive to give the best education to their children, regardless of how little money they might have.”