KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders have urged Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to explain if his recent use of the Islamic State (IS) example to defend his colleague’s call for a racial boycott meant that he approves of racism.
The leaders said Hishammuddin’s attempt to justify Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Chinese proposal by claiming that it was nowhere as bad as the atrocities committed by IS militants made little sense as it was as good as comparing apples and oranges.
PAS Research Centre executive director Dr Dzulkelfy Ahmad said Hishammuddin’s reference to IS was bizarre and unwarranted as Ismail Sabri’s remarks had no similarities to the militant group’s acts of terrorism.
“We cannot use the IS as a yardstick to measure evil-doing. IS is about violence and killing, Ismail Sabri’s case is about understanding civility and nation-building,” he said.
“It’s as if he (Hishammuddin) is saying that we can tolerate Ismail Sabri because he’s not as bad as IS.”
DAP’s Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming agreed with his PR colleague, labelling the comparison “ridiculous”.
Ismail Sabri, he pointed out, has been accused of being a “racist”, not a “terrorist”.
“Is Hishammuddin saying that any Cabinet minister can make racist remarks just because this is not as bad as what IS has been doing?,” he said.
PKR’s Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said no one should use such “horrific, barbaric murders” committed by the IS as examples to justify the minister’s alleged “racial prejudice”.
On Saturday, in an apparent attempt to play down the furore surrounding Ismail Sabri’s comments, Hishammuddin pointed out that his colleague’s remark against Chinese traders was not as bad as the violent acts by IS.
The Umno vice-president also said that Malaysia's moderation agenda would not be defined by the incident, which he claimed had been “blown out of proportion”.
“If you want to talk about moderation, I think the IS' burning of the Jordanian pilot is far worse that this case involving Ismail Sabri,” he told a news conference.
Last Monday, Ismail Sabri sparked a firestorm after a Facebook post in which he urged Malay consumers to boycott allegedly profiteering Chinese businesses, singling out the Old Town White Coffee franchise as an example of an “anti-Islamic” business and claiming it was linked to Perak DAP Chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham.
The agriculture and agro-based industries minister also claimed that the high price of goods despite the dip in fuel costs was a form of sabotage aimed at stirring public dissent against the government.
Ismail Sabri has since deleted the Facebook post, and Putrajaya issued a statement to “clarify” that the minister was referring to all unscrupulous traders and not only the Chinese.
