COMMENT Enough has been said about the Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Facebook post.

Despite the black-and-white evidence, his statement is being defended by even Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself. None of the other ministers was prepared to stand up for the sake of the Chinese community.

Neither MCA president Liow Tiong Lai nor the other MCA cabinet minister, Wee Ka Siong, made a stand against what they know is an intentional jab at the Chinese community.

The third man, Gerakan’s president, Mah Siew Keong is also as silent as a Chinese mouse. Did he even squeak when the entire Chinese community was being trampled upon?

What about Paul Low, the integrity minister? When the PM tries to sweep this under the carpet, when firm action should have been implemented, did Low even remind the him that this will not be well-received by the community at large?

No short memories

Allow me to put on record that the Chinese community will not take this lightly, especially when all four Chinese ministers are in Najib’s cabinet. They could at least have stepped down, to show that they mean business.

None of them has even offered to do it. This raises the question whether they are in politics for selfish gains or for the sake of their community, especially since MCA, for example, is a race-based party within the BN coalition.

On the contrary, what we saw is Liow (left in photo) posing with a big smile with the man who caused a stir amongst the Chinese in this country. If Liow had any fibre, he should have stepped down as a minister to show his protest.

Like my fellow writer, Ram Anand, I am not an enemy of Ismail Sabri. In fact, I did not even know who he was until this Facebook post, which caught my attention. In my opinion, the minister should just focus on improving the food production in this country.

Or at least try to recover the full amount paid to the husband of a former Umno minister for what is now a failed cattle rearing project. Ismail Sabri should be encouraging all Malaysians to continue on the ‘Buku Hijau’ which Najib’s own late father, Abdul Razak Hussein, had started.

When people like Ismail Sabri himself can even emulate Tindak Malaysia’s founder Wong Piang Yow in promoting food production at every Malaysian household, I would salute him!

Instead, he wasted so much of the cabinet’s time over a stupid, insensible, brinking on nonsensical post on Facebook, as if he had nothing better to do.

The Chinese community at large do not have short memories. We, in fact, do not even need to hear an apology, but when the time comes for the next general election, all of us will know what to do.

The only right thing for Ismail Sabri to do is to step down from his ministerial position, because like his predecessor, he is not qualified to fill it. Should he remain adamant and unrepentant, the only right thing for the PM to do is to sack him unless, of course, there are no one else in Umno who is qualified to replace him.

Beyond just the Chinese community

Ismail Sabri is a bane to Umno from the way I look at it. What he has done has not only affected the Chinese community, but also all Malaysians.

After observing the antics of our present cabinet ministers, many of us have expressed our disgust with the entire Barisan Nasional government.

There are big corruption cases that are not being addressed properly such as the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal and the Scorpene scandal. Instead, we are seeing the unfolding of the politically-motivated Sodomy II case, with the prospects of Opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim being imprisoned.

We have also seen the indiscriminate logging activities in a number of states, affecting many lives, as witnessed from the major flood which hit the east coast states of peninsular Malaysia.

The country was again awakened when the Mongolian model Altantuya Shariibuu’s murder case ended up with the death sentence on both personal bodyguards to Najib, when neither the link between these two police operatives and the motives behind the murder has not been established by the courts.

The country’s currency is depreciating. Despite oil prices tumbling, our petrol prices are still on the high side. Come April 1, the country will again be impacted with the goods and services tax (GST) which will cause prices of goods to rise even higher.

Now, tell me, who, apart from the Chinese community that is infuriated with Ismail Sabri’s Facebook post, would not ‘wait’ for the right time to cast a protest vote against the present BN government?

People like Ismail Sabri can only wait and see how with the next general election just a couple of years more to go, will we vote. At this juncture, given the choice between PAS and Umno, I would still vote for PAS.

But, in a three-corner fight between the two parties and another Pakatan component party, rest assured, my vote will not go to the two. I am a moderate Malaysian, who has been driven up the wall to be saying what I am saying now.


STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.