AP Interview: Anwar wants Malaysia to scrap race policies
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Pardoned Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that decades-old affirmative action policies for the country’s Malay majority must be discarded in favour of a new program to help the poor regardless of race.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the prime minister-in-waiting also said he plans to run in a byelection this year to become a member of Parliament but that he isn’t in a rush to take over the top job.
Anwar, 70, was convicted of sodomy in 2015 in a case he said was politically motivated. His sentence expires June 8 but he was given a royal pardon on Wednesday and freed from custody after last week’s stunning electoral victory by his alliance led by former foe Mahathir Mohamad.
Anwar said poor Malays will benefit more from merit-based policies that are transparent. He said the New Economic Policy, instituted in 1971 following bloody riots fueled by Malay discontent with the relative affluence of ethnic minority Chinese, has been abused to enrich the elites.