KUALA LUMPUR: With campaigning intensifying ahead of the upcoming state polls, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged Malaysians not to fall for racial rhetoric.
The Prime Minister said election campaigns that pit one race against another will leave the poor with no one to fight for them.
“That is why I always plead, do not listen to campaigns that pit Malay parties against Chinese parties.
“The ones who will lose out are the ordinary people at the bottom,” said Anwar during his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony in Taman Rimba Kiara on Monday (June 15).
“This longhouse problem, who wants to fight for it, if everyone quarrels about race?” he asked.
Anwar said election campaign seasons often become contests over which community would benefit.
“You look at the campaigns now. It is the Chinese wanting to take this, the Indians wanting to take that, and the Malays wanting to grab this.
“They do not talk about people’s rights,” said Anwar.
Nomination for the Johor state polls has been set at June 27 and polling on July 11.
For the Negri Sembilan state polls, nominations had been set on July 18 and polling on Aug 1.
Anwar said protecting one community’s rights did not come at another’s expense, while pointing to an allocation that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh approved for the community’s temple.
“It’s not a zero-sum game. Each side can benefit and be looked after.
“This country, although majority Muslim, Malay and bumiputra, the rights of everyone must be protected,” he added.
Anwar said good governence was not about slogans.
“This is about the heart, the soul, compassion and justice,” he added.
The longhouse families are descendants of rubber tappers moved from the Bukit Kiara Estate in the early 1980s.
They were placed in longhouses meant to last about five years, but have remained on the site for more than four decades.
The Federal Court struck down a high-rise project planned for the area in 2023, after a long campaign by residents to keep the adjoining park.
The Cabinet later agreed to build permanent homes for the families on the existing site.
