COMMENT The rabid, racist statement by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob urging Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses has snowballed from the aberration of one errant minister, to a crisis of an entire errant cabinet of 35 ministers because of the extraordinary and outrageous decision by the cabinet to sanction, condone and defend Ismail’s racist fulminations.

Today is the first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman’s 112th birthday anniversary. I have no doubt that if the Ismail Sabri episode had happened in Tunku’s time as PM, Ismail would have been made to apologise for his racist fulminations and even been sacked from Tunku’s cabinet.