PEJUANG international affairs bureau chief Tariq Ismail Mustafa has brushed off accusations that his party may be racist, saying that it subscribes to Malay nationalism and at the same time eschews Malay supremacist attitudes.
Tariq said that Pejuang was more centrist than any other Malay parties and added that it hoped to win enough seats in the Johor state polls to have a say in the formation of the state government.
“Yes, you can say we’re splitting Malay votes, but what Pejuang is trying to show is we are not taking sides,” the central executive committee member said in an interview with news portal FMT.
“Even though we subscribe to Malay nationalism, we’re not at all about Malay supremacy and all the racial rhetoric. We want to show that Malays are accommodating and that we can work with other races.”
The 42-year-old Tariq, who is the grandson of Malaysia’s second deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, is Pejuang’s candidate for the Malay-majority Sedili seat.
Tariq’s uncle Mohamed Tawfik Ismail was once a Johor MP in Sungai Benut before a name change to Simpang Renggam.
Tariq is in a four-cornered fight with Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Muszaide Makmur, Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Hasnolhadi Mohd Sebalas and Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Mat Khairi Samsudin.
BN won the Sedili seat in 2018 with a 9,168-vote majority. – March 2, 2022
Main photo credit: FMT
