Its deputy chairman, Mohamad Hasan, said members should not react to statements made by any component leaders who did not represent BN’s stance when it comes to evaluating their future with the coalition.

“The cooperation, understanding and fraternity which we have is above statements made by a few select leaders.

“It will be detrimental and unfair if we view these minor flaws as reason to deny the benefits which were established long ago,” Mohamad, who is also the acting Umno president, said in a statement.

Earlier today, MCA and MIC called for an urgent meeting of the coalition’s top leadership to decide on its future, saying they no longer believe it was committed to multiracialism.

In a joint statement by their presidents, Wee Ka Siong and SA Vigneswaran, the two parties – which have been part of the alliance that ruled Malaysia from independence to May 9 last year – expressed regret over the silence of Umno leaders on what they said were “racial remarks” by Nazri Aziz.

They were referring to recent statements by Nazri, who is also the BN secretary-general, who reportedly questioned the appointment of non-Muslims to top posts such as the attorney-general, chief justice and finance minister.

The former minister has since explained that he was reflecting the sentiments on the ground, and said he was not a racist as proven by his past statements defending the existence of vernacular schools.

The Padang Rengas MP, however, said the two parties should “go ahead and leave”.

Mohamad said he believed BN respected the role played by the BN component parties and it was wrong to assume that they were no longer important.

“In fact, BN has always been trying to strengthen every component,” he said.

The former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar, fondly known as “Tok Mat”, also said that a BN Supreme Council meeting would be held soon to discuss the matter.