Police to summon KL minister over racist Facebook post

KUALA LUMPUR — Police will call Umno minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to give a statement over his Facebook post urging Malays to boycott Chinese businesses, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said.

Mr Khalid tweeted at his handle @KBAB51 yesterday (Feb 2) evening, asking all parties to “immediately exercise restraints in making (public) statements”.

“It hurts our racial harmony,” he added.

Mr Ismail, the agriculture and agro-based industries minister, came under fire yesterday for posting on his Facebook account that Malay consumers had a role to play in helping the government fight profiteers by using their collective power to lower the price of goods.

“Forgive me for sharing my views, but besides the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, which uses the Price Control Act and the Anti-Profiteering Act to act against traders who raise their prices indiscriminately, the greatest power lies with the consumers.

“The majority of consumers are Malay, Chinese are a minority, if the Malays boycott their businesses, they will surely have no choice but to reduce their prices,” he had said in a post on the social networking site.

Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) Lim Kit Siang had earlier taken the police to task for not acting against Mr Ismail Sabri, and said that if a similar remark had been made by an opposition politician against Malay traders, Inspector-General Khalid would have immediately taken action.

“Has the Inspector-General of Police’s (IGP) Twitter account broken down or is Bukit Aman having problems with Internet access,” the DAP parliamentary leader said in a statement earlier.

Mr Ismail was also criticised by his Cabinet colleague, Wee Ka Siong, who is minister in the prime minister’s department.

Mr Wee is also deputy president of the Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA), the senior Chinese party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Mr Ismail had confirmed to The Malaysian Insider that he did indeed post the comments on his Facebook account.

The post has been shared numerous times by other Facebook users and several also congratulated him for being “bold”.

As criticism poured in, Ismail told The Malaysian Insider that his statement was directed only at the Chinese businesses who had refused to lower their prices.

In his post, Ismail had also singled out the OldTown White Coffee café chain owned by OldTown Bhd, alleging that Perak DAP adviser Datuk Ngeh Khoo Ham owned shares in the company.

“Malays are still refusing to boycott (OldTown White Coffee), what more when its owner is said to be the Ngeh family of Perak who are known to be anti-Islam.

“As long as the Malays don’t change, the Chinese will take the opportunity to oppress the Malays,” the minister had said. THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER