KUALA LUMPUR: Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has clarified that his Facebook posting was not targeted towards the Chinese community in general but the Chinese traders and businessmen, who refused to bring down the price of goods despite the drop in oil prices.
Ismail took to Facebook to explain why he had called the Malay community to boycott Chinese-owned businesses that have been raising prices unreasonably.
“When the oil prices went up, the traders had used this as an excuse to raise the prices of items. Now when they refuse to reduce the prices, people are expressing discontentment towards the government.
“If you ask me, consumers should not solely depend on the government to protect them from price increase, they must use their consumer power to push for lower prices through boycotts and other methods.
“Consumers are the majority while the traders are minority, so it would make sense, which side had more voices in this matter,” Ismail said on his social media page.
On the call for boycott by Malay consumers, Ismail said this was his way of responding towards all the social media users expressing their frustration towards stubborn Chinese businessmen refusing to cut down prices.
He said the principle was the same, for the majority to use their power and not only lashing out or talking on Facebook.
“Traders who refuse to slash their prices after the drop in oil prices are committing sabotage by further increasing the anger of the people towards the government,” Ismail said.
In an earlier Facebook posting, Ismail had said that the majority Malay consumers can push Chinese traders to lower prices if they boycotted their businesses.
The posting has been removed after it received many feedbacks from social media users.