KUALA LUMPUR – Speculation is rife about the future of Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Cabinet, following a cryptic Facebook post this evening.
In that post, Ismail Sabri uploaded an image of himself exiting his office at the Defence Ministry with the caption: “Saya dah tutup pintu depan tapi...” (I have closed the front door, but...).
The text in the post was accompanied with a teary face emoji.
Sources told The Vibes that the senior minister is frustrated over the slow pace of the Covid-19 recovery and the shambolic implementation of the current lockdown where many companies are still operating and many people are still on the road.
Economic sectors are being paralysed due to glitches in the International Trade and Industry Ministry’s (Miti) Covid-19 Intelligent Management System (CIMS) 3.0, which has resulted in many economic sectors that are allowed to operate under the current lockdown, to instead be shut.
The glitch in the system however allows non-essential services like photography shops to remain operating.
Ismail Sabri and his senior officers have not responded to queries from The Vibes.
Ismail Sabri’s lament also comes after the government seemingly made a U-turn on allowing alcohol factories to operate in recent days.
Yesterday, Ismail Sabri ordered beer factories in the country to close during the lockdown, following complaints by several quarters.
This came a week after he ordered a casino in Genting Highlands to also close.
It is also understood that a National Security Council meeting on the approval of so many economic sectors was testy with frustration on the faces of ministers.
“Some of these ministers are also at breaking point themselves leading the fight against the pandemic for almost 16 months,” said a source.
At press time, the post – which was uploaded at around 4pm this evening – had gained at least 47,000 reactions, 11,000 comments and 8,900 shares.
The Umno vice-president’s post had also received a reaction from the popular Twitter fan page of Pertubuhan Martabat Jalinan Muhibbah Malaysia (MJMM) president Abdul Rani Kulup Abdullah yesterday.
On Tuesday, the fan page shared an article stating that 94,142 companies received approval from Miti to operate.
The caption in the post said: “Ismail Sabri kunci pintu depan. Jemin (Datuk Seri Azmin Ali) pergi bukak pintu belakang. Benda kalau dah biasa main belakang ni payah dah nak berubah.”
The post loosely translates as “Ismail Sabri locked the front door, but Jemin (Azmin) opened the backdoor. Those used to playing from behind are usually difficult to change.”
A Facebook user by the name of Asnirul Fitri Tukimam, expressed his support for Ismail Sabri and received more than 900 reactions.
“It’s okay, Datuk, do continue to voice out. If you do things properly God willing the rakyat will be with you,” the post read.
“You must continue to voice out so that other ministers can hear the problems that are happening.
“If the factories are still open, then this lockdown would be meaningless to the rakyat.”
Another user Syazril Shah said he agreed with the lockdown and appreciated the efforts of frontliners.
“But if this is the way (moving forwards), we will only be wasting time, energy, resources and money to lockdown until June 14.”
For Facebook user Muhammad Mustaqim, the current lockdown requires more enforcement.
“Miti is making problems, Datuk. Hope you can return to the MCO 1.0 with many road closures...this is not the case (now) as I’m from Shah Alam and work in Melawati with a single roadblock... there are still many cars on the road.” – The Vibes, June 2, 2021
