Ti Lian Ker said Mahathir himself had contributed to Malay fragmentation — both during his 22-year reign as party president and prime minister, and in the ensuing years.
Contradicting the veteran politician’s claim Malay fragmentation only came about after he first stepped down from office in 2003, Ti said divisions within Umno began much earlier.
He said the party in the late 1980s was infamously divided into “Team A” and “Team B”, leading Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to challenge Mahathir for the presidency in 1987.
The split was further compounded, Ti said, when those aligned to Tengku Razaleigh were sacked from Mahathir’s Cabinet and left Umno to form Semangat 46.
He said Mahathir’s decision to sack Anwar Ibrahim as the deputy prime minister in 1998 drove the biggest wedge between the Malays.
Even after he retired, Mahathir continued to divide the Malays further, Ti added.
Mahathir, he recalled, formed Bersatu to remove Najib Razak from power, and later established Pejuang after falling out with Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin in the wake of the Sheraton Move, which triggered the collapse of Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan government.
“What Mahathir is peddling is revisionist history. The Malay divide or split did not begin after Mahathir stepped down.
“It began when he was in power for the first time and continued long after he stepped down,” Ti told FMT.
Mahathir’s actions also inadvertently affected race relations as the various Malay-based parties began ramping up race and religious issues and rhetoric in an attempt to win over the fractured Malay voter base.
The weaponisation of race and religious issues, he said, subsequently led to increased polarisation and eroded trust between the Malays and non-Malays.
Ti said it was ironic that Mahathir was now talking about the importance of Malay unity.
The public, he said, must familiarise themselves with Mahathir’s history and not accept such skewed narratives as true.
“There needs to be some sort of reflection on the community’s part. We need to confront the truth and call out the lies and state the truths to avoid being misled or becoming more right wing.”