KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — MCA has misplaced its priorities by focusing on racial issues instead of working to lower prices of goods and services for consumers, Umno minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has said.

Ismail Sabri, who has come under attack last week by political ally MCA over his allegedly “racist” call for Malays to boycott Chinese traders, conceded that he felt the party’s focus “disappointing”.

“Personally, I’m still as usual. But quite disappointing, I’m quite disappointed with MCA because MCA’s focus should be to be together with me to fight for the lowering of goods’ prices, not focus until today on racial issues that cannot be solved,” he said during a live streaming of an interview last night on Utusan Online.

“The actual struggle is to help the public get better prices. That should be the focus, but it looks like their priorities are wrong,” the ministry of agriculture and agro-based industries added on Umno-owned paper Utusan Malaysia’s news portal.

He was replying to a question on how he felt about MCA’s move to lodge police reports against him, as the party was an ally within the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

Ismail Sabri suggested that MCA rope in Chinese consumers to join hands with consumers of other ethnicities to form a big force to pressure businesses to bring down their prices, saying: “Because those who are affected are also the Chinese. It’s the same.”

He also thanked political ally and Indian-based MIC for supporting him, drawing comparisons with the Chinese-based MCA.

In a Facebook post last Monday, Ismail Sabri allegedly called for a boycott of Chinese traders in a bid to pressure them to lower prices of goods sold, saying: “As long as Malays don’t change, the Chinese will take advantage to oppress the Malays.”

The entry has since been removed as the minister later clarified in a second Facebook post that he meant consumers were the majority and traders the minority, and was directing his remarks at unscrupulous Chinese traders instead of the entire Chinese community.

Ismail Sabri was engaged in a public spat with MCA Youth Chief Chong Sin Woon, who had called the minister’s initial remark full of “racism” and against the BN government’s multi-racial policies, even saying he was unfit to be in Cabinet.

In a reply to Chong through a third Facebook post last week, Ismail Sabri had claimed that Chinese consumers stand to benefit from the boycott call, with his most recent statement appearing to resume telling Malay consumers to use their majority power and target the minority Chinese traders who allegedly hike up prices of their goods and services.

The public spat led to 92 Umno grassroots leaders calling for Chong’s resignation as MCA Youth Chief, while all 189 MCA divisions threw their back behind him and his call for Ismail Sabri’s removal as minister.

Last Friday, MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai similarly said Chong has the party’s “full support” to stay on as youth chief, but took a neutral stance when asked to comment on Ismail Sabri’s allegations.

Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that Cabinet was informed that Ismail Sabri’s remarks were directed at all businesses that refused to lower prices and not those belonging to specific races, adding that the minister meant consumers should use their power to force traders to lower prices.

Yesterday, Ismail Sabri said he showed up at the federal police headquarters Bukit Aman to have his statement recorded for the police’s ongoing probe on his remarks.