KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will only ratify the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) after consulting all races in the country, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Saying this would not be easy, the Prime Minister said each race was sensitive to certain issues.
He said there was no point for the Malays to bring up the ketuanan melayu (Malay supremacy) issue if they did not improve.
“If we want to be a tuan (master), we need to have the knowledge, willingness to be hardworking, do things properly and not steal.
“Don’t follow the example of our previous prime minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak),” said Dr Mahathir.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P. Waytha Moorthy said last week that Malaysia would ratify ICERD and five other treaties as early as the first quarter of next year.
The ICERD is a UN convention which commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races.
Dr Mahathir said the subsidy and incentive mentality of Malaysians had made them dependent on it, adding that the people would lose their ability to think or move forward if they were indoctrinated with such thinking.
On Najib’s Facebook video calling on the Pakatan Harapan government to stop blaming him and his administration for the country’s current woes, the PM said Najib should bring out the money he was hiding “to help the country settle its debts”.
“I want to join him in borrowing a few trillion dollars and then manage to pay that few trillion dollars.
“If he can tell me how, for example, like bringing out the money that he’s hiding, then we can pay our debts.
“That should be his aim instead of trying to divert attention from his own problems,” he said.
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