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Ismail Sabri & MARA Digital (Low Yat 2): Tip of the iceberg of a racial segregation policy?
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The #IM4Umno minister
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The minister who set up MARA Digital is also the minister who called for a boycott of Chinese businesses back in February 2015.
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12 February 2015
The Minister who called for Malays to boycott Chinese businesses
Minister who opens mouth without engaging brain says ‘sorry’ but is he sincere?
Star
Thursday February 12, 2015 MYT 10:04:53 PM
Ismail Sabri again says he regrets “boycott” statement
PETALING JAYA: Twelve days after the controversy erupted, Agriculture and Agro Based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob reiterated that he regretted his “boycott Chinese businesses” comments on Facebook in a statement late Thursday.
“My comments have gone viral. I regret the statement had led to racial sentiments,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said he did not intend to create any racial tension and polarization because his intention when making the comment was clearly intended to traders who are still reluctant to lower the price of goods, irrespective of race.
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Ismail: ‘No reason’ for me to apologise http://bit.ly/1KapuAL @IsmailSabri60
…“I only said ‘dikatakan (supposedly)’, and that a majority of the traders are Chinese,” Ismail Sabri said.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/288246
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Malaysian Insider
Minister calls for Malay boycott of Chinese businesses to lower prices
A minister’s call for traders to lower the price of goods in line with the drop in oil prices took a racial tone when he called on Malays to boycott Chinese businesses, singling out the Old Town White Coffee cafe franchise because of its alleged DAP links.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in a Facebook post said Malay consumers had a role in helping the government to fight profiteers by using their collective power to lower the price of goods.
“Forgive me for sharing my views, but besides the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, which uses the Price Control Act and the Anti-Profiteering Act to act against traders who raise their prices indiscriminately, the greatest power lies with consumers.
“The majority of consumers are Malay, Chinese are a minority, if the Malays boycott their businesses, they will surely have no choice but to reduce their prices,” he said in a Facebook post.
Ismail, who was the former domestic trade and consumerism minister, confirmed to The Malaysian Insider that the statement was made by him on his Facebook account.
The post has been shared numerous times by other Facebook users and several also congratulated him for being “bold” in his statement.
He also singled out the Old Town White Coffee chain owned by OldTown Bhd, saying Perak DAP adviser Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham owned shares in the company.
“Malays are still refusing to boycott (Old Town White Coffee) what more when its owner is said to be the DAP Ngeh family of Perak who are known to be anti-Islam.
“As long as the Malays don’t change, the Chinese will take the opportunity to oppress the Malays,” said Ismail.
Ismail told The Malaysian Insider that his statement was directed at Chinese businesses whom he said were “reluctant” to lower their prices.
“I am referring to Chinese traders who are reluctant to reduce the prices of goods even though the price of petrol has come down.
“What I want to emphasise is for people not to depend solely on the government to ensure the price of goods comes down because as consumers, they can use their power to pressure businesses,” he said.
In his post, Ismail took Malay consumers to task for continuing to patronise Chinese outlets “even though their halal certification is suspect” and even though some of these outlets have had action taken against them. He did not specify which businesses these were.
“Imagine, many Chinese eateries have no ‘halal’ logo and they have been raided a few times and caught because their ‘halal’ certification is suspect, (but) Malays continue to crowd these restaurants, when there are thousands of Malay restaurants which genuinely ‘halal’,” he had said.
He then cited Old Town White Coffee as an example and claimed that it was owned by Ngeh’s family whom he said were “anti-Islam”.
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Malaysian Insider
Price of goods has nothing to do with race, Dr M tells Ismail Sabri
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has chastised Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for his racist rant on Chinese businesses, saying the price of goods going up has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the trader.
He said instead of playing the race card, the agriculture and agro-based industries minister should find out the real cause of the problem.
“That’s a negative way to try to solve the problem. Find out what is the cause,” he said at a press conference at Forest Institute Malaysia (FRIM) today.
“Maybe he didn’t think what he said, if he thinks carefully, he would not say boycott Chinese goods.”
Dr Mahathir said the issue was not about Chinese or Malay, as other traders like Malay and Indian also did not reduce the price of goods.
“This is not about Chinese, Malay or anyone else. This is about goods, not only goods sold by Chinese… Indian, Malays also raised price, they don’t bring the price down.
“This is not about Chinese or Malay, this is about oil prices going down, but the price of goods are not going down.”
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weehingthong 
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