MCA has urged Utusan Malaysia to drop its promotion of a ‘1Melayu, 1Bumi’ concept and instead promote the Najib Abdul Razak administration’s 1Malaysia concept.

Its deputy publicity chief Loh Seng Kok said this was important to promote mutual understanding among different communities in Malaysia, instead of adopting a polarising stance.

“Tinkering with the idealism of 1Malaysia... into a racial superiority concept of 1Melayu, 1Bumiputera is (to) regress Malaysia into legalised racial discrimination.

“(This was) a practice of the past but condemned internationally. Surely Utusan Malaysia would not want Malaysia to be equated with apartheid in South Africa or American racial segregation,” said Loh in a statement today.  

Loh said that the daily’s call for Chinese voters to be punished for voting against BN in Sarawak would be undemocratic and would further drive Chinese voters into opposition hands.

“ Utusan ’s racist diatribe appears to be part of a hidden agenda at helping to swing votes to the opposition, in particular DAP, which during the Sarawak state election had played on Chinese emotions,” he said.

Loh warned that the ‘1Melayu, 1Bumi’ was counter-productive and would “backfire” against BN because the coalition comprises of 13 parties representing Malaysia’s various communities.

“What is more important is that if Utusan has a following and seeks respectability, Utusan should push for the realisation of the 1Malaysia concept - promulgating friendship and trust,” he said.

On Wednesday, Utusan Malaysia assistant editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan wrote in his column Cuit that Malay parties and NGOs must unite under the ‘1Melayu, 1Bumi’ banner to unite the community.

Zaini wrote that this was in response to the ‘success’ of DAP in uniting the Chinese, because the party won 12 out of 15 seats it contested in the Sarawak state election on April 16.