DAP parliamentary leader Nga Kor Ming has called on Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh to cease inciting racial and religious sentiments over the KK Mart Allah socks debacle.
He said Akmal’s reaction is harmful and may end up backfiring on Umno.
“Umno Youth chief Akmal and netizens should not continue to provoke racial and religious sentiments with an arrogant and provocative stance. This is harmful and utterly unacceptable behaviour.
“If Akmal does not want to see Umno continue to lose the people’s support, he must first reflect on himself, humbly accept sincere advice, or he will be remembered as the cause of Umno’s electoral defeat,” Nga said in a statement today.
He added that Akmal’s manipulation of racial and religious sentiment was an outdated strategy that did not suit his youth and today’s era of globalisation.
Piling on the pressure
Akmal has been pushing hard against KK Mart after socks bearing the word Allah on them were discovered, calling for a boycott if the chain did not post banners apologising over the incident.
This is despite the convenience store chain apologising over the matter on social media, saying they had overlooked socks sent to them from a supplier.
For Nga, KK Mart’s apology on its online channels and notices posted at its branches should have sufficed.
“KK Mart has publicly apologised and taken steps to terminate the supplier’s contract for socks bearing the word Allah, thus there is no need to further aggravate their mistake.
“Instead, we should understand, encourage each other, and move forward unitedly,” he said.
Nga added that extreme negative reactions to issues could affect foreign investor confidence.
“Humility brings benefits, arrogance invites losses. I hope Akmal, as the Umno Youth chief, understands this timeless truth,” he said.
Akmal first put pressure on the issue after police initially said they were not investigating the Allah socks, as there was no police report on the matter.
This prompted the Umno Youth chief to galvanise the party’s grassroots to lodge multiple police reports on the matter.
Police have since confirmed that they had opened two investigation papers on the case.
Learn from mistakes
Earlier today, the supplier of the offending socks, Xin Jian Chang Sdn Bhd, also apologised over the matter.
“As the owner of the company that supplied the socks to KK Mart, I apologise for everything,” company owner Soh Chin Huat was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
“This has opened my eyes to the need to be more careful in the process of bringing in products from overseas... we will learn from our mistakes,” he added.
He said while his company does produce their own socks, this particular batch was procured in a bundle from China.
“They come from a batch of 1,200 socks of various designs and colours which arrived in our facility in Batu Pahat, Johor, last year.
“Our employees then sent out the socks to various KK Mart premises on Jan 29. This was a mistake by our employees who did not scrutinise the socks,” he said.
He said the producer in China also claimed that the socks were sent to Malaysia by accident. - Mkini
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