MCA: PM 'understands' our position on Ismail
MCA believed that the party has done its job in ensuring that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak "understood" the party's position on minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's call for Malays to boycott Chinese businesses.
In a press release this evening, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai said Najib expressed this during the cabinet meeting and that cabinet should stop actions and comments like the one made by Ismail Sabri.
This seemingly contradicts the Prime Minister's Office post-cabinet statement which concurred with Ismail Sabri that the minister directed his boycott call on "all traders and not just from a certain race".
Liow yesterday vowed to seek justice for the Chinese community because Ismail Sabri's call to boycott Chinese traders to bring prices down is a smear against the community.
"MCA views that BN is a multi-racial government and must take care of the feeling of all races. Racist statement and extreme viewpoint will not bring any benefit to the country.
"MCA will not tolerate anyone who harms the Chinese feeling with extreme statement. Our stand on condemning such racist comments remain unchanged,” he said in Facebook posting in the Chinese language.
Ismail Sabri in a Facebook posting urged Malays to boycott Chinese businesses in order to bring prices down and questioned why Malays still flock to Chinese restaurants despite their dubious halal certifications.
He later clarified that what he meant was "stubborn" Chinese traders who did not bring down prices despite fuel price cuts, and for consumers to band together to apply pressure.
This prompted MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon to say that Ismail Sabri is unfit to be minister.
Today, 181 MCA divisions had issued a joint statement to show their support for Chong for criticising Ismail Sabri.
They said that Chong’s remark represented the stand of the Chinese-based party in total and it showed that all the moderate Malaysian citizens not agreed with extremist statement.
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