The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government under the premiership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will continue to safeguard Malay and bumiputra interests while taking care of marginalised groups in the country, said Tun Daim Zainuddin.
“We have to take care of poor Malay, Chinese, Indian and others as well as those from Sabah and Sarawak. The rich can take care of themselves,” said the former Finance Minister.
“People of all races, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian as well as those from Sabah and Sarawak, voted the new government in, so we have got to be fair to them,” he said during an exclusive interview with Bernama on Sunday (May 10).
“In no way will measures to address issues and reforms pertaining to the economic and financial management of the country jeopardise any group as enshrined under the constitution,” said Daim, who is heading the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) set up by the government.
“We will safeguard the Constitution,” he added.
Daim said that the issue currently was not so much of ensuring equality, but rather to address the issue of “inequality” prevalent under the previous administration.
“There was a lot of inequality among the Malays due to cronyism and we are not in favour of Umno crony companies while Indians were also marginalised,” he said.
He also said it was not right to stereotype urban Chinese as rich as there were many of them who struggled to make a living because of rising costs of living.
“Once you address the inequalities, everybody will be happy,” he said, adding that the role of the government was to be fair to everybody and take care of their welfare.