Agriculture and Agri-based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday tried to put a positive spin on his Facebook post urging Malays to boycott Chinese traders by insisting that the racial aspect should be disregarded.

In an interview with RTM last night, Ismail Sabri called on all disregarded the fact that he called on Malays consumers to boycott Chinese traders and instead see it as a general statement.

“I hope those who cannot accept what I said, who are sensitive and see it as an attack against a certain community should see the bigger picture.

“What I urged for was a boycott of stubborn traders who refuse to cut prices (despite a drop in fuel costs), so (those criticising me) should see is that if they really boycott these stubborn traders, prices will come down.

“The ones benefiting are consumers, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian or so on. This is the more important thing which should be focused on, and not the petty things which are played up now,” he said.

He added that he only gave the example of a Chinese-owned coffee shop allegedly with dubious halal certification to highlight his claim that Malay consumers often resort to being angry instead of using their power as consumers.

“For example, the halal certificate issue has been raised several times and Malays get angry when they mention it.

“They are angry consumers, but their anger disappears just like that and they continue to patronize the business. We should act, instead of just being angry,” he said.

He declined to mention the name of the coffeeshop he was referring to, but in his controversial Facebook posting he had mentioned the chain Old Town White Coffee that he claimed is owned by a “Ngeh”.

Old Town White Coffee has since denied it has any links to DAP Perak leader Ngeh Koo Ham and reiterated that it serves halal food and beverages.

On his part, Ismail defended his remark saying he was not referring to the DAP leader as there are many with the name Ngeh in Perak.

Malacca CM defends Ismail

 

Meanwhile according to Bernama , the Malacca state government will collect data of consumers and wholesalers according to race so that the overall objective of issues in consumerism would not be viewed based on political interests.

Chief Minister Idris Haron said, three exco members, namely Latiff Tamby Chik , Lai Meng Chong and Hasan Rahman would be responsible to report to him the consumerism data.

"Let us look at the data collected in detail and through it, any statement on consumer related matters shall not be perceived in a racist, seditious and emotional view," he told reporters after chairing an exco meeting at Seri Negeri in Malacca yesterday.

According to Idris the data would include the number of consumers as well as suppliers and wholesalers according to their race.

He has also called all consumers in the state to be smart and use their consumer power to deal with consumer issues.

Idris added that the recommendation by Ismail Sabri to boycott businesses that refused to lower the price of goods, had been misinterpreted by certain parties who intended to politicize the issue.

"The statement was made to protect the interest of the consumers but it has been taken out of context for certain reasons," he said.