KUALA LUMPUR — The position of finance minister should go to the best qualified candidate regardless of race, said Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seti Anwar Ibrahim on Monday (Oct 7).

Responding to the suggestion raised during the Malay Dignity Congress on Sunday, the former finance minister said the holder’s ethnicity should not matter so long as he did not sideline any community.

“The finance minister must be a person who is qualified, a competent professional, who cares for the Malays and Bumi, and cares for all Malaysians,” he told reporters in the lobby of Parliament.

On Sunday, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari demanded that key portfolios and official positions be reserved for Malays and Muslims, specifically those of the Sunni denomination of Islam.

The positions are prime minister, deputy prime minister, finance minister, home minister, education minister and the attorney general.

Currently, the finance minister is Lim Guan Eng and the attorney general is Tan Sri Tommy Thomas.

Despite contemporary claims that non-Malay holders of the positions were unprecedented, Malaysia’s first and second finance minister were Tun Henry Lee Hau Shik and Tun Tan Siew Sin.

However, they are the only non-Malays to have held the position prior to Mr Lim.

Mr Anwar also denied that he had not been invited to attend yesterday’s congress but conceded that the invitation only came after the snub had been perceived last week.

“By then, I already had programmes in Port Dickson,” said Mr Anwar of his federal constituency. MALAY MAIL