PM Najib willing to look ‘ridiculous’ to save Ismail’s skin

Tony Pua says Najib Razak is willing to lie to the people and risk looking stupid rather than condemn Ismail for his racist rant.

PETALING JAYA: Rather than acknowledge Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s message for the racist rant that it was, the prime minister has instead chosen to lie about it at the expense of looking stupid, said Tony Pua in a statement this morning.

The MP for Petaling Jaya Utara said Najib Razak’s statement that the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry was referring to “all traders and not just traders from a particular race” was “a blatant attempt at pretending” Ismail was not targeting the Chinese community when by his message, he so clearly was.

Pua said Najib was following the Goebbels playbook where “when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”

He lamented that the PM would rather run the risk of looking “stupid and ridiculous” rather than “denounce the blatant criticism and malicious lies” that one from his own Cabinet was guilty of.

“The complete failure by the Prime Minister to even gently rebuke Datuk Ismail Sabri over his incendiary racist statement is both appalling and disappointing given his rhetorics of promoting ‘1Malaysia’ and the Global Movement of Moderates,” Pua said.

In Ismail Sabri’s message that was posted on Facebook, he called for all Malays to boycott Chinese traders who refused to bring down the prices of goods, saying this was how the Chinese oppressed the Malays in this country.

Ismail also singled out Old Town White Coffee, saying DAP’s Ngeh Koo Ham, who was well known to be anti-Islam, had shares in the establishment, an accusation that has been repeatedly denied by Ngeh.

“These were clear cut lies which have been circulating in the UMNO-owned print media and the social media for some time. They have also been refuted many times,” Pua said, expressing his surprise that the PM had still “inexplicably decided” to defend and protect Ismail.

“Our BN-UMNO Ministers and leaders are certainly suffering from the ‘Big Lie’ syndrome, believing in their own malicious lies,” Pua said, adding this was the way in which they chose to “victimise their political opponents”.