Malaysia's Anwar accuses ruling party leaders of stirring racial hatred - AP

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim defended moves to reform an affirmative action policy for ethnic Malays and accused ruling party leaders of stirring racial hatred to deflect attention from their electoral losses.

Members of the United Malays National Organization, the backbone of the ruling National Front coalition, held street protests Friday over proposals to roll back the 37-year-old New Economic Policy, or NEP. It gives privileges in contracts, jobs, business and education to ethnic Malays, who make up 60 percent of the country's population.

Anwar, in a statement on his People's Justice Party Web site late Saturday, said the policy needs to be altered to create a "more just, more equitable" system that benefits the poor regardless of race and religion.

"I am therefore deeply concerned with the attempt being made by certain elements to stoke the flames of racial hatred," he said.

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