PUTRAJAYA(Malaysia): Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said historical realities must not be questioned to prevent potential issues from cropping up.

Elaborating on his call for Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to apologise for his remarks on the concept of Malay supremacy, Syed Hamid said the former minister in the Prime Minister's Department should extend the apology to all Malays in the country.

"It (the apology) is a simple statement that he should make. He should tell them (Malays) that it was not his intention to make them angry or hurt their feeling as the realities are all there," the home minister said.

Zaid should realise that in practising freedom of speech, he should not go to the extent of hurting the feelings of Malays, he said.

"If he does, then issues will start arising. So, those historical realities must never be questioned. Let us look forward.

"If you say that the concept of Malay supremacy has failed, then Zaid will not be what he is today. He is fortunate he was born a Malay," he said after launching a forensic level security control system, NexCode, here yesterday.

On Friday, Zaid was reported to have said that the concept of Malay supremacy had failed and was a distraction from the real issues confronting the country.