Dr Boo Cheng Hau said the ideology of “Bumiputera and Malay supremacy” is the reason Malaysians were divided along racial lines.

PPBM’s assertion that it was a race-based party, he said, showed it lacked “the foresight and sincerity to forge true democratic reforms in Malaysian politics”.

The former Skudai assemblyman said multiracial component parties of Pakatan Harapan – PKR, DAP and Amanah – won the overwhelming majority of seats for the coalition.

This proved that Malaysians, including Malays, accepted the Pan-Malaysian, non-racial approach for institutional reform, he said.

“Statements from PPBM leaders not only contravene the PH election manifesto but fail to propose more effective and concrete solutions to the dilemma faced by the country because they can’t accept that Malay-Bumiputera supremacy has been ineffective and destructive ‘old medicine’ to the country’s ailments,” he said in a statement.

Last night, PPBM chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad defended the party’s race-based identity as realistic as Malaysians were still split along racial lines.

The prime minister said despite some criticising the party’s racial outlook, the reality was that all political parties still chose candidates based on the majority race in the constituencies they contested.

But Boo argued that Pakatan Harapan’s non-racial politics must never be compromised.

He called on DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to urge the PH secretariat to convene an emergency presidential council meeting to discuss the issue of de-racialising Malaysian politics.

The presidential council, he said, should seek an explanation from Mahathir as to why PPBM insisted on single-race politics.

“The PH presidential council should issue an ultimatum to PPBM to submit a timetable to completely de-racialise its own one-race supremacy agenda in order to prevent Pakatan Harapan becoming Barisan Nasional 2.0.”