Price of goods has nothing to do with race, Dr M tells Ismail Sabri

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (centre) at the declaration of Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) as a National Heritage site in Kuala Lumpur today. Dr Mahathir says a minister should not accuse the Chinese over the price of goods going up despite cheaper petrol prices. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, February 4, 2015.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has chastised Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for his racist rant on Chinese businesses, saying the price of goods going up has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the trader.

He said instead of playing the race card, the agriculture and agro-based industries minister should find out the real cause of the problem.

"That's a negative way to try to solve the problem. Find out what is the cause," he said at a press conference at Forest Institute Malaysia (FRIM) today.

"Maybe he didn’t think what he said, if he thinks carefully, he would not say boycott Chinese goods."

Dr Mahathir said the issue was not about Chinese or Malay, as other traders like Malay and Indian also did not reduce the price of goods.

"This is not about Chinese, Malay or anyone else. This is about goods, not only goods sold by Chinese... Indian, Malays also raised price, they don’t bring the price down.

"This is not about Chinese or Malay, this is about oil prices going down, but goods prices are not going down."

- TMI