It must have something to do with food wastage, which rose by 15-20% during Ramadan in Malaysia compared to the usual monthly average.
In 2023, the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) pointed out that 90,000 tonnes of food was “trashed throughout the country during Ramadan”.
One report estimates that this amount of wasted food “could be distributed and served three times a day to over 88 million people”.
This is a staggering amount of wastage, made starker when we consider that Malaysia’s current population is about 35 million. Worrying indeed.
Where food is wasted, it often rots away. Dangerous, disgusting creatures then crawl out of the sewers to feed on this ‘free’ rotting food.
These creatures come in different shapes and sizes. We are familiar with the rats and other rodents found in back lanes and in hotel and restaurant rubbish bins.
But every Ramadan, it is larger creatures on two feet who invariably make the news. We come across those staring daggers at non-Muslims munching on something. In the past, others even shut down a school canteen, forcing non-Muslim kids to have their meals in a toilet.
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It is all very strange, as Ramadan is about upholding abstinence, patience and even kindness. It is not about troubling or threatening those of other faiths.
This Ramadan, a couple of these creatures appeared to have got their 15 minutes of fame, when their bully-boy behaviour went viral on social media.
Both seemed hellbent on taking the law into their own hands. They appeared keen on letting everyone know how well they could let their anger manifest itself during Ramadan.
The first individual showed how mature and sufficiently ‘cleansed and enlightened’ he was after Friday prayers by assaulting a teenage student who was in uniform. This happened in Kajang after a traffic misunderstanding escalated into physical assault. The result: the student sustained severe facial injuries, including a bloodied, broken nose.
A couple of days later, on a lazy Sunday afternoon down in Johor Bahru, an older man allegedly confronted and slapped another young non-Muslim man for eating in public and for rightly refusing to show the old coot his identity card.
As with the Kajang attack, this incident was recorded and went viral over social media.
The victim made a police report.
The assailant was remanded and questioned by police, charged in court, and initially given a “DNAA” – Malaysia’s now-infamous grant of a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
What do we make of these incidents, the responses to them, and the many comments by various individuals and groups since then?
In the Kajang assault, many condemned the assailant.
But a minority tried to gloss over the assault by pointing out that the schoolboy victim had been driving without a valid driving licence.
This view is sick and disingenuous. Even the police have rightly pointed out that his non-possession of a licence could not justify the vicious assault.
But it is the Johor Bahru case that inflamed many in Malaysia. Here there was no altercation or provocation by the victim, who reportedly was having a quiet meal at a convenience shop inside a mall.
At the shop, he was accosted by the older man, who entered the store and started harassing the victim for eating during Ramadan.
When the victim rightly pointed out that he was not a Muslim, the older man demanded to see his identity card – which the victim rightly refused.
Clearly frustrated by this refusal, the stocky pensioner, possibly noting that the victim was about half his size, started slapping the poor young man – presuming, I guess, that his was the ‘hand of God’.
It would be easy – and dangerously wrong – to suggest that these are isolated incidents or that they are cases of “misplaced rage”, as one angry MP charitably interpreted them.
There is nothing misplaced about the rage. No, these incidents need to be seen and assessed within the context of an increasingly polarised Malaysia.
Some groups, some communities, believe they are privileged and entitled. They think they can act with impunity, break laws and get away with it. They act this way because, by and large, they are allowed, even encouraged, to do so by the authorities.
Indeed, they see an ex-prime minister, convicted by the highest courts of the land of plundering the nation – only to have his sentence halved and perhaps being allowed to serve the remainder of it at home.
They see other leaders being set free through the DNAA route and even serving as senior ministers.
So they begin to tell themselves they too will be protected – simply because of their ethnicity and religion.
Spreading disinformation is their forte, knowing that many will blindly follow them, given a life of being fed such crap by certain ‘spiritual leaders’, the media, political parties and, worse, an education system aimed at indoctrination and control.
We thus need to cut through these lies and disinformation, which are clearly perpetuated to maintain – indeed expand – their power and control over society.
Their false narrative must be challenged and bigots prevented from making the month of Ramadan – or any period – one that is filled with hate and anger.
Rom Nain
Co-editor, Aliran newsletter
27 March 2025
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
