It is shocking that Minister of Agriculture Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri has accused DAP of being racist over the high price of goods when he himself has recently committed the unpardonable by asking the Malays to boycott Chinese traders over the price issue.
Ismail was quoted as saying: “When the price of goods don’t go down, DAP will use that to manipulate the rakyat” and “This means that the goods that do not drop in price are used to the advantage of the opposition and manipulated by them to blame the government”.
Let me remind Ismail Sabri also that the DAP has a responsibility as an opposition party to act as a check-and-balance mechanism with regard to government policies and programmes. When we criticise the ruling government over the rising cost of living, we expect the government to exercise its authority to help reduce the prices of commodities in order to lessen the burden on the rakyat.
For example, we expect the government to reduce electricity tariffs so as to reduce the production cost for basic commodities and utilities as TNB has been enjoying huge profits due to the recent drop in global oil prices.
What we never expected was for the Minister to racialise this issue. Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri‘s boycott call is most unfair to Chinese traders as this is not a race issue. Moreover, his remarks are tantamount to racial incitement.
We reiterate our call to the government to review policies in order to alleviate the impact of rising costs on Malaysians. DAP’s stand on the issue is from the point of view of a consumer and a citizen. Our aim is to defend the rights of all Malaysian consumers over our overall ‘common enemy’ of high prices and I cannot understand how Ismail can twist this view and accuse the DAP of racism!
If Ismail Sabri calls on all Malaysians to boycott all stubborn business owners and traders, irrespective of race, who have refused to lower prices, DAP will definitely be in agreement with him.
For his baseless attacks on DAP, Ismail should apologise on two issues. Firstly, he must apologise to the Chinese community for hurting their feelings by calling for the boycott of Chinese businesses; Secondly, he must apologise to the DAP for his irresponsible remark that DAP is the ‘biggest father’ of all racists, as reported in The Malaysian Insider on 7 February 2015.