Dr Mahathir: GTA is not an anti-Chinese coalition

ALOR SETAR - Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) is not an anti-Chinese coalition.

Its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, although the political coalition is made up of four Malay parties, its main goal is to get rid of 'substandard' Malay parties, so that they do not continue to govern this country.

"We created a Malay party because non-Malay parties that were mixed before could not oppose Umno.

" We have explained to them why we do not have any Chinese representatives - among other things because we are worried that the Malays in the rural areas will not want to support us if there is a Chinese party," he said at a press conference after holding a dialogue session with the Chinese community here on Saturday.

GTA is made up of Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang), Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia, Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia and Parti Ikatan India Muslim Nasional.

According to Dr Mahathir, although GTA is made up of 100 per cent Malays, the coalition was not created to compete with the Chinese, but instead was created to bring down Umno.

" GTA was created to oppose corrupt Malay parties like Umno which is part of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. We want to fight Umno, if the Malays don't support GTA, they will support Umno, which is a despicable party." "That is why I have met and explained to the Chinese community why we created a Malay party, not because it is anti-Chinese but because it is anti-corrupt Malays," he added.

He further explained that the goal was to establish a new government consisting of leaders who are truthful and clean from any crimes and that he hoped the Chinese community will support GTA.

Dr Mahathir said that GTA's goal was well received by the Chinese community here and they understood what the coalition's aspirations were.

He went on to say that the Malay support is now divided into four groups namely for BN, Perikatan Nasional (PN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) in addition to GTA.

"There are areas where the Chinese are the majority and the Malays are the minority or vice versa. If the Chinese community supports any party, that party will win.

"We will get rid of substandard leaders, establish a good government according to the law and treat all races according to the national constitution.

"If governed by a good government, Malaysia will return to being an Asian Tiger, instead of a kleptocratic country ruled by crooks," he stressed.

Dr Mahathir added, if the country is stable, all races can conduct their businesses smoothly without interference or weak bureaucracy.

Also present at the dialogue session was GTA candidate for the Alor Setar Parliamentary seat Datuk Mohamad Nuhairi Rahmat from Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang),.