PUTRAJAYA: Identity politics is a zero-sum game with no winners, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (pic) says.
The Pakatan Harapan secretary-general said, without referring to any particular politician, that rhetoric based on religious and racial identity will lead to no winners and that such politics were disruptive.
He added that the people should instead assess candidates based on performance.
"It is impossible for me and Keadilan (PKR) to claim that we are more Malay than Umno or Bersatu, or for me to say that I can out-Islam PAS because its niche is as an Islamic party. So who wins? It's a zero-sum game; there is no winner," he said here on Monday (July 27), commenting on recent developments in the national political front.
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He added that performance-based politics would enable the people to assess a government's or state's actual achievements, including its efforts to tackle poverty and drug abuse.
"So when a state is the poorest and has the worst drug problem, suddenly we only talk about the politics of Malay, Chinese and Indian identity.
"Why? Because there is no time for the people to scrutinise performance-based politics.
"Yet, why is poverty still so serious? Poverty is followed by other weaknesses.
"If we want to talk about Islam and the Malays being under threat, the Malays are under threat when poverty runs rampant," he said.
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Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, the Perikatan Nasional election director, came under fire recently after he reportedly said during a ceramah that "Tanah Melayu" was the only homeland for the Malays, unlike other ethnic groups.
Negri Sembilan police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Alzafny Ahmad confirmed that two police reports had been made against Sanusi over the remarks.
