Dr Mahathir Mohamad said forming his new party Pejuang was necessary, as the country needs people who can come up with solutions to help Malays, whom he described as "economically-backwards".

The pro-tem Pejuang chairperson also warned that wealth disparity, mixed with an ethnic factor, could lead to racial conflict.

However, the accuracy of the former prime minister's assessment is in question, as an analysis of government data on income by race indicates that while some 932 thousand Bumiputera households were earning less than RM3,000 a month, almost as many bumiputera households were earning more than RM10,000 a month...