Ibrahim touted Putra as an alternative to Malay Muslims who could not see eye-to-eye with the principles of the present Pakatan Harapan (PH) government or that of other political parties. — Picture by Razak Ghazali

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — Self-declared defenders of Bumiputera rights, Datuk Ibrahim Ali and former Umno veteran Tan Sri Khalid Yunus announced today their new political party called Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia — Putra for short.

Ibrahim who is its pro tempore president, touted Putra as an alternative to Malay Muslims who could not see eye-to-eye with the principles of the present Pakatan Harapan (PH) government or that of other political parties.

“We have heard feedbacks from the people, including Umno members, who are in need of a new party.

“They said they will not leave Umno for Pakatan as the coalition was the one who killed their beloved party.

“Meanwhile, others are hesitant to join Pakatan because they disagree with their fights for equal rights and liberalism,” he told a press conference at Kelab Sultan Sulaiman here.

Today also marks the ruling PH coalition’s 100th day in power.

Khalid, acting as Ibrahim’s pro tempore deputy, added that Putra’s inception also stemmed from PH’s alleged failure to uphold the Federal Constitution and the rule of law.

“These are the two salient points that Ibrahim and I just can’t tolerate.

“As veterans, we cannot afford to keep mum and be bystanders when other parties are acting like they are mute and refusing to provide the necessary check and balance,” he said.

Ibrahim said an online application to register the party has been made on August 13 and a physical copy was also submitted to the Registrar of Society yesterday.

He said once registered, the party will strive to ensure that the economy “cake” will be distributed fairly according to the race ratio in Malaysia.

“While we support the need-base policy, we want to ensure that the economy cake will not be monopolised by the minorities,” he said.

Ibrahim has a chequered history with several Malay Muslim parties over the course of his political career starting from the 1980s.

He was previously Pasir Mas MP three times, in 1986 as a Barisan Nasional candidate, in 1990 representing Parti Semangat Melayu 46 and in 2008 with the support of PAS.

He has also been vying to be re-elected into the Dewan Rakyat but suffered consecutive losses in the previous general elections, both times as an independent candidate.