YOURSAY ‘Was Ismail careless with his words or was it plain arrogance?’

Malays urged to boycott Chinese businesses

Wira: Agriculture and Agri-based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, we know exactly what you meant and what you are.

You meant to say only some Chinese traders cheat and the Malays should boycott them. It seems you don't mind if Malays are cheated by unscrupulous Malays, like those cronies who hold licences and permits to bring in foreign labour, who obtains cheap APs (approved permits) for cars and so on.

If a Pakatan leader were to handle this, he would call on all Malaysians to boycott unscrupulous traders, regardless of race.

You are a bigot who use race as a political tool, never mind if that tears the country further apart.

Jiminy Qrikert: Every time some idiot minister or Umno leader makes such a racist statement against the Chinese, the Umno politicians sit back, relax and enjoy the mass outbreak of vitriol, venom and hate spewed by the Chinese community to this provocation.

At the same time, they also monitor to see if the Malays respond by rejecting and condemning such blatant racist rants by Umno leaders against the Chinese.

The absolute most positive scenario in response to their racist taunts is when the Chinese take a tit-for-tat attitude to whatever rubbish the Umno idiots uttered to provoke them.

When the Chinese respond by saying boycott-for-boycott, eye-for-an-eye, that is when Umno is most happy. But they become even more ecstatic when the Malays say nothing to reject the blatant racism of Umno against the Chinese.

This is a sure sign that the majority still support Umno when it matters most at the polls. It is a healthy balance that works best in Umno's interest.

Umno's worst nightmare is when the Chinese do not respond at all to their racist provocation but instead all hell breaks loose in the Malay social media with Malays, young and old, rejecting outright what they obviously know as racist baiting of their Chinese brethren by Umno.

The day Malays rise up against Umno to stop such racist rants against the Chinese community is the day Umno will lose Putrajaya.

Anonymous #33457332: Ismail Sabri obviously has shown his racist thinking when he advised Malays to boycott Chinese traders who refused to lower prices.

It is not the question of the majority Malays and minority Chinese. Any sensible person who wants to advice the consumers could have just said 'boycott traders who refuse to lower prices of good and services'. Why bring in the race?

Bystander: Did he originally in his Facebook posting mentioned to boycott only the “stubborn” Chinese traders? Was it now an afterthought?

What kind of minister who is so careless with his words or was it a display of plain arrogance?

Anonymous #59879079: There seems to be too many of these incidents from Umno. Can Malaysiakini compile these cases and archive them so that come GE14, we can be reminded of what these imbeciles have been up to?

Umno is playing on the fact that we forget easily and when they dish out a Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) handout, all their bad deeds are forgotten. No, let's make sure they are written down in history.

Negarawan: That’s enough. The Umno-led government still wants to impose six percent GST (Goods and Services Tax) and is now blaming Chinese traders for selling at high prices. Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) bill is not coming down despite drastic drop in fuel cost.

Has Ismail Sabri taken any effort to have a dialogue with the business community in general (not just Chinese) to understand why prices are still high, instead of making racist and unfounded statements?

High prices have nothing to do with race and religion, it has to do with an incompetent and corrupt government.

Ismail Sabri's message of labelling the Chinese traders as anti-Malay and anti-Islam is completely unacceptable, but we know he will survive another day as only Umno can talk and act with impunity.

Malaysian Pariah: If one finds a shop that sells expensive, just go to another, why make it as an issue?

Similarly, avoid buying or dealing with racist organisations or companies that are not equal opportunity employers. We can tell our relatives overseas to boycott them, too. And ask them to tell their friends to do the same.

This is how we get justice - for fair prices, fair employers, and fair business opportunities.

Skong: With these sorts of morons as ministers, how do we expect Malaysia to progress? What is even worst, the PM has not said a single word to stop all the racist statement.

As an agriculture minister what has you got to say about thousands of tons of rice that are not consumable due to long storage of more than three years in Perlis? I believe there are many more similar cases around the country.

Avatar 111: I suppose if you take away all the idiotic ministers from the government, there will be none left.

Abasir: It is only because Najib has deliberately surrounded himself with self-serving imbeciles, morons and nincompoops in all shapes and sizes that he appears relatively more intelligent... and therefore irreplaceable.

Nazi, too, told Germans to boycott Jewish traders

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