Oct 24 — Malays are now beggars in their own country and need to support Umno despite all its flaws or their pleas will be ignored, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

“We are beggars in our own country and need help from others to get even a little bit,” said Dr Mahathir at the Malay Economic Congress today.

He said that the position of Malays has deteriorated due to their split in political support and they needed to unite behind Umno despite all its flaws in order to became the kingmakers and gain attention from the country’s leadership.

“Even though they are defective (cacat), if they win because of our support and our unity, our memorandums will be effective as their dependence will be on us,” he said. “Now if they read the memo, they will say no. If we become kingmakers, they will heed us.”

He also said that the Malay economy depends on politics.

“Strengthening our politics is our way to achieve economic success,” he said.

“I am not confident resolutions from this congress will get heeded as they (Umno) are not powerful,” he said. “We need to give them power so we get respect.”

Mahathir also said that as Malays have become weaker, the other races were “denying” the Malays their rights.

He said, however, that he was not a racist.

“I just want to divide the country’s wealth in a way that is fair,” he said. “We are 60 per cent of the population. We are just asking 30 per cent. Take the rest.”

Toward the end of his speech, however, Mahathir changed tack and told Malays to look within themselves for solutions to their problems.

He said that he also felt proud that there were now many Malay millionaires and billionaires, some of whom were able to compete outside the country without government help.

“We have to ask ourselves, did we fail because others obstructed us? That the government did not support us? Or that we didn’t make use of our chances?” he said.