Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the one who blamed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for "giving in" to the Chinese and not focusing enough on Malay voters, Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said today.
"So it was not the prime minister who played the race card. It was his critics who played the race card as an excuse to oust him," Salleh said in a blog posting today.
Immediately after the 2013 general election, Mahathir had said that BN did not do well because it no longer had the support of the Chinese, even after Najib had 'wasted time' by pandering to the Chinese, he said.
In the Channel News Asia (CNA) documentary titled 'A Fractured Nation', which discusses the Bersih 4 and the red shirt rallies, Salleh pointed out to the comments of Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies deputy director Ooi Kee Beng.
Ooi ( photo ) in the documentary said Najib may not be able to stop the red shirt rally without appearing weak, even if he might not have supported it, Salleh said.
Ooi, he said, had further clarified that those promoting the rally formed the support base for Umno and it would not do well for the prime minister if he was perceived to oppose the rally.
"In not so many words, Ooi said that it was not Najib who played the race card but that the race card is being played against Najib and that Najib is as much the victim in this racial game," he said.
Salleh also described the CNA documentary as "basically comparing the pre-Merdeka Day celebration Bersih rally to the red shirt rally on the Malaysia Day celebration".
"The message in this documentary is that the Bersih rally was about democracy, free and fair elections, plus more transparency and good governance, while the red shirt rally was just about racism.
"Therefore, the yellow shirt rally had noble intentions while the red shirt rally did not," he said.
The CNA documentary was slated to be aired at 8pm yesterday, but was suddenly removed from the schedule.
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