Malaysia's Mahathir vows to unite Malays: 'Bernama'

Malaysia's Mahathir vows to unite Malays: 'Bernama'

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad vowed on Monday vowed to unite the country's dominant, but deeply divided Malay community and protect their interests, the national Bernama news agency reported.

"We must remember that we need not unite solely to oppose others. It's just to safeguard our interests," Mahathir told reporters, referring to his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party's 2001 resolution.

Bernama did not give any other details.

The multi-racial nation's majority community, Malays have witnessed a bitter division over a total 15-year prison sentence handed to former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on charges of sodomy and corruption.

Despite the conviction, many Malays say the charges against Anwar and the severity of the sentence were politically motivated to remove Anwar as a rival to Mahathir.

Anwar, a former prime-minister-in-waiting, says he was ousted by Mahathir's allies to prevent him from exposing corruption in the government. The prime minister says Anwar was sacked on moral grounds and indicted for the same reasons.

Last November, Mahathir's ruling coalition lost a crucial by- election in his home state of Kedah to the opposition Parti Keadilan Nasional, which champions Anwar and is led by his wife Azizah Ismail.

The defeat also marked the defection of Chinese voters, who have strongly aired their suspicion that an education project to bring together children from different ethnic backgrounds was aimed at eroding their language and culture.

Mahathir has said the government would defend the country's affirmative action programs and Malay groups angrily rejected the call from Suqiu, a Chinese political lobby group, to stop favoring the Malays.

Affirmative action programs introduced in 1971 under the New Economic Policy established quotas allowing Malays to enter universities and employment even if they were less qualified than applicants from other races. They also allocated 30 percent of the equity in local companies to Malays.

The privileges have caused deep resentment among the large Chinese and Indian communities.

Malays account for 55 percent of Malaysia's 23 million people while ethnic Chinese and Indians account for 30 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Mahathir has repeatedly accused PAS of trying to destabilize the country by manipulating racial and religious issues. Opposition leaders, meanwhile, say UMNO's development policies benefit only a handful while neglecting the country's poor and underprivileged.

The opposition on Monday claimed Mahathir's government had stifled democracy throughout 2000 by arresting outspoken opposition leaders and allowing corruption to continue.

"There is little evidence to suggest that the government is serious about eradicating elite corruption or about checking abuses of administrative power," Azizah said in a statement.