'Bring it on!' - Akmal rebuffs Nga over KK Mart boycott call

Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh has doubled down on his call to boycott KK Mart despite the store's apology for selling socks bearing the word Allah.

Police yesterday confirmed that two investigation papers were opened over the matter and Akmal was urged not to escalate the issue with boycott calls.

However, he remains defiant, specifically rebuffing DAP's Nga Kor Ming who had warned him that his reaction may backfire.

"If you say defending the word Allah by boycotting KK Mart is incitement, bring it on bro!

"(I'm) not scared at all. Umno's principle is to defend Islam, bumiputera and the Malay royalty, and this will never change. It’s what Umno Youth will hold on to until death," he said last night.

This morning, Akmal (above, left) followed up by urging his supporters to keep calm and keep boycotting.

"The more you ask your friends not to boycott, the stronger the Muslims will boycott you.

"Continue boycotting, we will teach a hard lesson to all parties who like to belittle religion and race," he posted on Facebook.

Yesterday, Nga urged Akmal to cease inciting racial and religious sentiments over the KK Mart Allah socks debacle, saying his reaction was harmful and may backfire on Umno.

“Akmal and netizens should not continue to provoke racial and religious sentiments with an arrogant and provocative stance. This is harmful and utterly unacceptable behaviour.

“If Akmal does not want to see Umno continue to lose the people’s support, he must first reflect on himself, humbly accept sincere advice, or he will be remembered as the cause of Umno’s electoral defeat,” the housing and local government minister said in a statement.

Nga added that Akmal’s manipulation of racial and religious sentiment was an outdated strategy that did not suit his youth and today’s era of globalisation.

Piling on the pressure

Akmal has been pushing hard against KK Mart after socks bearing the word Allah were discovered, calling for a boycott if the chain did not post banners apologising over the incident.

This is despite the convenience store chain apologising over the matter on social media, saying they had overlooked the socks sent to them from a supplier.

For Nga, KK Mart’s apology on its online channels and notices posted at its branches should have sufficed.

Akmal first put pressure on the issue after police initially said they were not investigating, as there was no police report on the matter.

This prompted the Umno Youth chief to galvanise the party’s grassroots to lodge multiple police reports.

Police have since confirmed that they had opened two investigation papers on the case.

Learn from mistakes

The supplier of the offending socks, Xin Jian Chang Sdn Bhd, has also apologised.

“As the owner of the company that supplied the socks to KK Mart, I apologise for everything,” company owner Soh Chin Huat was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

“This has opened my eyes to the need to be more careful in bringing in products from overseas... we will learn from our mistakes,” he added.

While his company produces its own socks, Soh clarified that this particular batch was procured in a bundle from China.

“They come from a batch of 1,200 socks of various designs and colours which arrived in our facility in Batu Pahat, Johor, last year.

“Our employees then sent the socks to various KK Mart premises on Jan 29. This was a mistake by our employees who did not scrutinise the socks,” he said.

The producer in China also claimed that the socks were sent to Malaysia by accident, he added.

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