Penang Gerakan chief Teng Hock Nam has attacked former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad for his role in officiating the inaugural annual general assembly of Malay rights group Perkasa.

penang gerakan pc 141008 teng hock nam In a statement today, Teng (left ) said Mahathir's speech contained "strongly worded racial content" and that it was "disgusting".

Teng said Mahathir had also took the opportunity to attack Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's '1Malaysia' concept.

"Perkasa has extremist racial and radical religious thinkers. Obviously, this completely goes against the ideas of tolerance, goodwill and social harmony found in the '1Malaysia' concept," said Teng.

Teng was referring to Perkasa's AGM on Saturday, which among others, saw its president Ibrahim Ali claiming that the Chinese community was blackmailing the Malays.

Mahathir was among the handful of former and current cabinet members who attended the meeting. Others included his son Mukhriz, who is Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister, and Deputy Finance Minister Awang Adek Hussin.

1 Gerakan, 2 statements

Teng's strongly worded criticism of Mahathir's speech appeared in the Mandarin version of the statement, issued by Penang Gerakan.

In the English statement, Teng made no mention of Mahathir ( below ) but lauded Umno leaders who had distanced themselves from Perkasa's activities.

perkasa first agm 270310 mahathir speech "This is (a) very clear (sign) that Umno under Najib is committed to transforming Umno into a party which is moderate and champions the rights and welfare of the Malays, as well as Malaysians on a just and fair basis," said Teng.

He warned that the heavy racial undertones uttered during Perkasa's AGM would definitely give political ammunition to DAP and PKR, presumably to attack Barisan Nasional.

"But we do not think it would affect PAS' political turf," said Teng.