By Sim Leoi Leoi

PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA: It does not matter if the Prime Minister is Malay or non-Malay, as long as he enjoys the trust of all Malaysians.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there was no specification in the country that the Prime Minister should only come from among the Malays.

"But when you talk about having a non-Malay as a PM, you are being racist yourself because you shouldn't ask the question if one is Malay or non-Malay.

"If he is acceptable to all Malaysians, yes, he can become PM. The specification is that he must be the leader of the majority party.

"Don't ask if he is Malay, Chinese or Indian," he told reporters after delivering a keynote address on "Bangsa Malaysia" at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here yesterday.

However, Dr Mahathir said the assumption that race-based politics or political parties were no longer relevant after the last general election when Barisan Nasional lost five states was wrong,

"Race-based politics is still relevant. We are still not united if we can't even have a vision school for all children from various races to attend together. As long as there is such sentiment, we won't be able to have Bangsa Malaysia.

"A multi-racial party won't work because every multi-racial party is dominated by one race, like Gerakan and DAP. Even the PAP in Singapore is not multi-racial," he said, adding that unless opposition parties like PAS or Keadilan were willing to have a non-Malay as their leader, such talk was merely propaganda.

Earlier in his address, Dr Mahathir said there would come a time when all races in the country would be able to come together as one "Bangsa Malaysia".

"But I don't think it will happen tomorrow and it will take a long time. We can keep our ethnic and cultural identities but we should feel more Malaysian than Malay or Chinese.

"The concept of Bangsa Malaysia cannot be forced on us and it cannot be done by a political party. This is because it's about people, not politics," he said.