KUALA LUMPUR: Umno President Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi last night made it clear that the party’s membership remained exclusively for the Malays and the Bumiputera.
He said Umno did not have to open its memberships for other races for the party to remain relevant.
“Since back then and until now, Malaysian society has been living within its respective communities.
“Our togetherness during Perikatan and now in Barisan Nasional (BN) have proven that we value the unique roles played by the parties, based on our being a multi-racial country.
“This was done for the sake of the country. In this respect, I want to stress here before you that Umno remains exclusively for the Malays and the Bumiputera,” he said when giving his maiden presidential address in the Umno general assembly, which is attended by almost 6,000 delegates throughout its three-day duration at the Putra World Trade Centre.
Zahid, who was officially elected to take over the helm of the BN’s biggest party four months ago, said that despite of Umno’s membership policy, it was not racist in nature.
He said the party did not practice prejudice and was not a threat to other races.
“The Malays have never treated other races with ill-intent and the Malays have never sidelined other races. So much so, far away from taking away the other races’ rights forcefully!” he said.
Zahid said Umno has always worked within the framework of Malay wisdom and upheld the principles of ‘al adlu was-ihsan (fairness and sincerity) as this was the party’s moral compass for every action it took.
He said on the contrary to what many people thought, the Malays were the ones who were usually opened to prejudices from other races.
"The Malays have been called stupid and lazy, and they are said to rely too much on subsidy and government aid.
"It is sadder when our race has been branded as beggars and shockingly, those in the government today allow their own race to be insulted as so," he said.
