KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — DAP today invited rival MCA to co-operate for a bid to press minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to apologise for telling Malays to boycott Chinese traders last week.
Seremban MP Loke Siew Fook said the party was ready to sign a joint statement with MCA demanding that the agriculture and agro-based industries minister apologise or be sacked from the Cabinet.
“DAP is prepared to stand together with the MCA and even sign a joint statement to urge Ismail Sabri to retract and apologise for his ‘wrong, extreme, and racist remark’ or else be sacked from the Cabinet,” Loke said in a statement.
But the party’s national organising secretary added a condition that MCA’s ministers must quit their Cabinet posts if they are unable to secure the apology.
Today, Loke denied that DAP was unfairly targeting MCA instead of the minister, saying that it has “consistently slammed Ismail Sabri and pressured for his removal”.
Both parties have been vocal on the issue and called for the minister’s apology and resignation.
MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon came under fire from Umno for saying Ismail Sabri was not fit to be a federal minister.
In a now deleted Facebook post, the minister urged Malay consumers to boycott allegedly profiteering Chinese businesses, singling out the Old Town White Coffee franchise as “anti-Islamic” and claiming it was linked to Perak DAP Chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham.
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.
