Lip Eng files report against Ismail Sabri over DAP, halal cert remarks

DAP lawmaker Lim Lip Eng has lodged a police report against Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob over comments the latter made about DAP and halal certification.

Lim urged the police to take immediate action, in line with Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador's stance that there will be no more warnings given to those who incite racial or religious sensitivities.

The report concerned Ismail's speech last Friday on the eve of the Umno-PAS charter signing.

Lim cited a report by The Star in which the Umno vice-president said DAP was “behind” Malay leaders in the government.

The report also cited Ismail as saying the halal logo certification “is now” (kini) under the Finance Ministry, instead of the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).

Ismail had disputed this in a statement on Sunday, claiming he only said that Jakim “will be” (akan) placed under the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC).

Malaysiakini has fact-checked Ismail’s speech from that night. Excerpts of his speech are as follows:

On DAP

“After the election, when we lost in the election, when Umno lost, PAS lost, and this new government, even though it is led by Malays, but those behind the Malays are DAP.

“Every policy being made today does not take care of Malay and Muslim interests, but takes care of the ‘DAP race’ (kaum DAP) who are in this country.”

On halal certification

“As we know, lately there is an issue of halal products which was previously under Jakim, now I was made to understand ‘it will be’ (akan) moved under HDC and so on.

“Previously, even though I was not the minister or deputy minister of Islamic affairs… at that time halal (certification) was under the domestic trade, consumerism, and co-operatives ministry under me.

“At that time, there were four companies issuing halal logos, which in the end led to doubts among Muslims about the halal logo, so in the end we placed it under Jakim.

“Jakim handled halal (certification) so well that other countries also recognised the halal logo issued by Jakim.

“But today, they ‘want to’ (ingin) place it under HDC. HDC is under the Finance Ministry, and we know who the finance minister is. Even the matter of halal ‘they’ want to take over.”

HDC was placed under the Economic Affairs Ministry, which is headed by PKR deputy president Azmin Ali. However, it is also wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

On Saturday, de facto Islamic Affairs Deputy Minister Fuziah Salleh said Ismail’s remarks were malicious and that halal certification is still being handled by Jakim.

Besides these two issues, Ismail in his speech also spoke about an alleged plot for DAP to increase its number of parliamentary seats through the redelineation of urban seats.

He said this would put DAP directly in charge of the country, instead of indirectly as it allegedly is now.