Growing Chinese clout may cause new May 13, says Ibrahim Ali
(The Malaysian Insider) – The Chinese community will become a national security threat if it grow more powerful politically and economically, Datuk Ibrahim Ali has said, even warning that this could result in another bloody racial clash like the May 13 tragedy.
The Perkasa chief said in a Sinar Harian interview today that the Chinese have been playing up political sentiments of late and accused the country’s second-largest ethnic group of having forgotten how living in Malaysia is “like heaven”.
“What if there is chaos? Like during the May 13 incident, they could not proceed with their trade.
“We, too, do not want that to happen,” the outspoken Pasir Mas federal lawmaker was quoted as saying in the article.
“Today, the Chinese are okay…but it’s not enough… they want more. Now, they control 40 per cent of the country’s economy, and now, they want political power as well,” Ibrahim continued.
“But what will happen in 25 years from now? Today is okay, but tomorrow, when their power spreads, then it will threaten national security and the May 13 incident will return,” he warned.
Ibrahim, or “Tok Him” as he is often called, has positioned himself as the firebrand for the Malay agenda and the face of Perkasa, the Malay right-wing group he founded just after the 12th general election in 2008.
But his fiery rhetoric and often racially-charged remarks have regularly put him on a collision course with non-Muslim politicians across the political divide, despite claims from the opposition that he has the backing of the ruling Umno.
Despite this, Ibrahim insisted in the Sinar Harian interview that none of what he has done or said in the past should qualify him for the “racist” label, even boasting that not a single police report has been lodged against him for being “racist” throughout his tenure at the head of the four-year-old Perkasa.
Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/growing-chinese-clout-may-cause-new-may-13-says-ibrahim-ali/
