KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 — Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh has today hit out at DAP’s federal minister Nga Kor Ming over what the former deemed to be his apparent lack in intelligence for calling his boycott campaign irresponsible and the cause of economic hardship.

Dr Akmal labelled Nga as "dumb” for linking his boycott campaign to Malaysia’s weak economy.

"To YB minister Nga Kor Ming who is lacking in intelligence, the country’s economy is bad because there are ministers like you!!!

"Dumb!!” he said in a brief posting in Malay on his official Facebook today.

The firebrand Merlimau assemblyman had also posted a screengrab of Nga’s post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that featured a Chinese language news article on a working-class couple’s hardship that was allegedly due to the boycott campaign.

His post was also shared by Umno Youth information chief Mohammad Sollehin Mohamad Tajie, who called for Nga to stop commenting on the boycott campaigns.

Dr Akmal was responding to the housing and local government minister’s post on X.

He also questioned Nga’s intellectual capacity for equating his boycott to the country’s weak economy.

"So you want to tell me that this boycott campaign is the cause of the country’s bad economy?

"Back in the days of (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak we had boycott campaigns, but the (country’s) economy still developed positively,” said Dr Akmal in reference to the former prime minister’s Barisan Nasional (BN) administration prior to the watershed 2018 general election.

In his earlier post on X, Nga explained that the boycott campaign by irresponsible parties had ultimately led to Malaysian workers suffering the consequences.

The DAP vice-chairman also advised the public not to be tricked into the boycott campaign trap by instigators.

It is learnt that Nga had meant the recent boycott campaigns that also included international brands that were allegedly linked to the Zionist cause during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Tuesday, it was reported that Dr Akmal said he will abide by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim’s decree on defending the country’s unity and harmony and tempering the "Allah” socks controversy.

He vowed to uphold the decree to maintain the harmony of the country and preserve the purity of the Islamic religion to calm the ongoing polemic.

Last month, Dr Akmal was mired in controversy as he was the most vocal critics of KK Super Mart when the convenience store chain was caught up over the sale of socks with the word "Allah” embroidered on them.

However, only five pairs of the socks from over 18,000 imported from China were found to have the word "Allah”, suggesting the incident had likely been coincidental.

The owners of the convenience store chain have since apologised, but have been charged for "intentionally hurting the feelings of Muslims”.

Despite the apology, Dr Akmal was adamant and called for a nationwide boycott of KK Super Mart outlets.

He has since been under police investigation for sedition.