Mahathir apologises for 'keling' remark

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has apologised to the Indian community today for using the word "keling" at an event on Saturday.
"I never meant to insult anybody when I said that. When I was younger, it was okay to use the word.
"Now I understand that it is considered to be derogatory. I apologise if it had caused any problems to anyone," he told a press conference after chairing PH presidential council meeting, here, today.
The apology from the veteran statesman came just two days after he declined to apologise for using the word "keling", claiming it did not have a derogatory connotation in Kedah, where he was born and raised.
His action drew flak and irked many people including National Human Rights Society (Hakam) chairperson Datuk S. Ambiga and MIC treasurer-general Datuk Seri S. Vell Paari, with many others criticising the former premier on social media.
Mahathir has also rubbished a media report quoting him as saying that the people of Sabah and Sarawak were lazy, clarifying that he had only called certain leaders of Sabah as being greedy.
He said it would make no sense for him to insult the rakyat there as it would only backfire on the opposition in its attempt to win votes in the Borneo states.
“I never said the rakyat of Sabah and Sarawak were lazy. It was the report that said that. I would be crazy to say such things if I wanted support for the party.
“What I did say was that the (BN) leaders, especially of Sabah, are very greedy,” he said, without elaborating further.
Mahathir was reported as saying at a forum that Sabah and Sarawak were far behind in terms of development compared to other states because their people were of low-mentality and the leaders there were greedy and only looking to make quick money by selling logs to foreign countries.