Anwar said that in matters affecting the rights of the Malays such as issues pertaining to the language, the religion of Islam and the position of Malay rulers, the Malay leaders must take a firm stance to ensure that everything was implemented properly.

“The problem is in the leadership’s firmness. It’s not about the national language but the reluctance to implement language policy clearly, up to the stage where I have seen official events conducted in English,” he said at the opening of “Building a Malaysian Nation” seminar here today.

Without dismissing the need to master other languages such as Mandarin and Tamil, he added: “However, in official events, we must show that we are serious (in upholding Bahasa Malaysia).”

Anwar also stressed the need to build the economy without racial sentiment.

He said the nation must solve the problem of severe poverty among the Malays and Bumiputeras as well as the Chinese and Indian communities.