(AFP) Malay Muslims are insignificant and incompetent and depend on other races to build Malaysia, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Mahathir gave this withering assessment of the Malay Muslims in a speech at a conference on "Mind-Opening of the Malay Muslims", the official Bernama news agency reported.

The prime minister, 76, who has ruled for more than 20 years, said the Malay Muslim community should be open-minded enough to accept what was obvious and the truth.

"What is obvious and the truth now is the insignificance of the Malay Muslims and their incompetence.

"What is obvious and the truth is that they, in their own country, have to depend on other races to build up the country's prosperity, and various affairs of the community are planned and implemented by other races."

Malays and other indigenous groups make up 65 percent of Malaysia's population of 23 million, ethnic-Chinese 26 percent and Indians seven percent.

Colonial attitude

Mahathir said Malays had a tendency to take the easy way out and in historical terms ended up giving away all that they had.

"When promised by the Chinese merchants a high and regular tax collection, the Malay rulers provided the Chinese merchants monopoly on tax and sale of opium.

"Then came the British with a promise that by listening to their advice, the Malay states will be better administered and the Malay rulers will enjoy regular pension payments and untold luxuries.

"With this promise, the colonists were given full powers to rule as they like and life was much easier but the states had to be given up," he said.

Mahathir complained that this attitude still prevailed to the extent that some Malays were prepared to sell off business facilities obtained from the government instead of using them for their own benefit.

Malaysia, which won its independence from Britain in 1957, has in place a system of affirmative action for ethnic Malays as the Chinese minority is seen as wielding disproportionate economic wealth.