KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today warns that national unity will never be achieved if Malaysians abandon the concept of power and wealth sharing between races.
In a speech read by his former political secretary Tan Sri Aziz Shamsuddin at the National Unity Convention here, Dr Mahathir said conflicts between the races will continue to happen without the power and wealth sharing concept.
"What is even worse, there will be a race who is very poor while another race which is very rich," he added.
Dr Mahathir insisted that conflicts between the rich and poor are bound to happen and the risk of it happening is very high if the rich are from a certain race while the poor from another.
The convention at Islamic Centre here was attended by representatives of 350 Malay non-governmental organisations headed by Perkasa.
Dr Mahathir who is the patron of Perkasa said any attempt to eradicate racial identity among Malaysians to achieve national unity will not succeed.
He said a more realistic way is to dilute the identity of races with the type of occupation among members of respective community.