“I want to tell the non-Malays: the Malays have rejected the corrupt. To the non-Malays, are you willing to let the country be ruled by a corrupt regime?,” said Dr Afif Bahardin of Bersatu.

“Are you willing to jeopardise the future of our children? Is this the government that the Chinese people want?” he said at a ceramah in Kempas, Johor, to support Zulkifli Jaafar, the PN candidate for the Pulai parliamentary seat.

Afif, who is an assemblyman in Selangor, said it was embarrassing for the Chinese to want the current government.

A former PKR member who joined Bersatu, Afif said the Zahid discharge was proof that the “Reformasi” movement begun by Anwar Ibrahim was dead.

“Reformasi is dead! It died with Pakatan Harapan and Umno. More accurately, it died with Anwar and Zahid. There is no longer any moral standing for them to talk about reforms,” Afif said.

There was no use in Anwar talking about fighting corruption, he said.

He said the prosecution’s application to discharge Zahid, after his defence had been called, “does not make sense”.

“It was not the defendant’s lawyer who urged the proceedings to be stopped. It was the public prosecutor who represented the unity government,” he said.