The 35-Minister Cabinet tomorrow will have a second and final opportunity to demonstrate whether they are “We Are all Ismail Sabri” or “We Are All Not Ismail Sabri”!

Cabinet Ministers should stop equivocating and end their hypocritical stances, as beating their breasts in public promising to “claim justice for the Chinese community” for the smear by the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, against the Chinese community but the astounding revelation later by the Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that neither the MCA nor MIC Ministers at the Cabinet meeting last Wednesday had asked Ismail to retract his racist statement or resign from the Cabinet. No mention whatsoever about the Gerakan Minister’s role in Cabinet!

Yesterday, after a week of procrastination, the police had finally recorded a statement from Ismail Sabri for his racist call to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses.

Malaysians are still intrigued and puzzled why the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar insists on wasting police time and resources on an investigation into the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry when the Cabinet last Wednesday had sanctioned, condoned and defended Ismail’s racist call to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses.

Is the IGP seriously suggesting that the Police will dare to find the Prime Minister and the entire Cabinet wrong in sanctioning, condoning and defending Ismail’s racist call, and to submit such an investigation report to the Attorney-General for further action?

Who could envisage the Attorney-General charging in court not only Ismail, but also the Prime Minister and the entire Cabinet for sanctioning, condoning and defending Ismail’s racist call on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses?

The scenario will be very different if the Cabinet tomorrow declare in unequivocal terms that the 35-Minister Cabinet is not endorsing, condoning or defending Ismail’s statement with the proclamation “We Are All Not Ismail Sabri”!

Will the Cabinet issue a statement after its meeting tomorrow clarifying that the Cabinet had not pre-empted and is not interfering with police investigations or the Attorney-General’s prosecution powers under the Constitution in the Ismail Sabri episode?

While I have grave doubts about the rigmarole of the police staging a show of investigations into Ismail Sabri when their hands are fully tied by the Cabinet decision last Wednesday (unless the Cabinet is willing to give a categorical public assurance that police are at liberty to investigate and the Attorney-General to prosecute Ismail Sabri), I am nonetheless firmly of the view that the police should not tarry in immediately launching full-scale investigations into the purported death threats made against him.

Even an errant Minister who had made the completely unacceptable racist call on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses is entitled to protection of life and liberty under the law, and this must not be denied to Ismail!

Yesterday, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad softened his initial disapproval of Ismail’s racist call on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses when he urged the public to carefully evaluate Ismail’s call before passing judgment, saying “What we read in the newspapers is not enough”.

As a result, I have taken the trouble to search for Ismail’s original FaceBook posting, which has become the most notorious FaceBook posting of any public personality (definitely a Cabinet Minister) in Malaysia, so notorious and self-incriminating that Ismail has even deleted it!

Re-reading Ismail’s original FaceBook posting suggesting Malay consumers should boycott Chinese businesses, it represents a grave breach of a Minister’s oath of office to serve all Malaysians regardless of race or religion and must therefore be condemned in the strongest possible terms – and it is no business of the Cabinet to sanction, condone and defend Ismail’s statement as the Cabinet did last Wednesday.

May be the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should ask every Cabinet Minister whether he or she is committed to be a Minister for all Malaysians, and not just for one race, religion or region, and to ask those who are not prepared to be a Minister for all Malaysians to immediately submit their resignation letters.