The government of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has run into trouble in its goal of implementing a United Nations treaty on eliminating racial discrimination, as resistance mounts both within the ruling coalition as well as among opposition parties, Nikkei Asian Review reports. On Sunday, Mahathir said Malaysia’s plan to ratify the treaty may be abandoned as it would be “almost impossible” to amend the federal Constitution to accommodate it, backtracking from what he had said at the UN general assembly in September. In June, Mahathir said there will continue to be policies in place to help the country’s ethnic majority Malays, in part to avoid conflict between them and “richer” ethnic groups like the Chinese.