Don’t sell food to Malays, restaurant told

Restaurant owner P Segar is puzzled by the state religious department's instruction and wants the PM's Department to intervene.

PETALING JAYA: A restaurant owner in Malacca has claimed that the state Islamic Religious Department (JAIM) has instructed him not to sell food to “Malay” customers.

P Segar, 52, who operates a restaurant in Jasin, wanted the Prime Minister’s Department to look into the matter.

Relating his ordeal to FMT, the businessman said on Jan 14, a group of six Jasin Town Council (MPJ) officers accompanied by three JAIM personnel and two Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry officers visited his restaurant.

“While MPJ enforcement officers inspected my business license and checked on the cleanliness of the restaurant, the rest were sitting outside where we had placed chairs and tables.

“Soon after the MPJ officers were satisfied that we had fulfilled all the necessary requirements, the JAIM officers came to the cashier’s counter and ordered me not to sell food to Malays,” he added.

The officer, Segar alleged, who refused to introduce himself, had also instructed to him to sell only drinks and sweets to Malay customers in future.

“When I asked him why, he just kept mum. Then one of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs officers intervened and told me that the restaurant did not display a proper price list.

“I was shocked by the answer. That’s the weirdest answer I have ever heard from a civil servant. So if I don’t display a proper price list, I can sell my food to Indians and Chinese but not Malays… I can accept it if they say my food is not ‘halal’ therefore it should not be served to Muslims.

“But this is just out of this world. What is the connection between my price list display and selling food to people of a particular race,” Segar said.

He insisted that the restaurant only served “halal” food as many of his customers were Muslims.

“The worst part is that although I had displayed a price list, they still gave me a warning letter stating that I should have displayed a proper price list… I now fear that they will come down hard on me.

“They should not be racial in conducting their duties,” added the businessman, who has been running the restaurant for the last 12 years.

Numerous attempts by FMT to obtain clarification from JAIM were futile.