Fact-check: Old Town White Coffee owned by Dutch firm, not Nga

Disinformation claiming DAP leader and cabinet minister Nga Kor Ming owns the restaurant chain Old Town White Coffee is reemerging after almost a decade after it was debunked by the then public-listed firm which owned the brand.

In fact, the restaurant chain is no longer owned by Malaysian entities.

In 2018, the brand was delisted after it was bought over by Dutch beverages firm Jacobs Douwe Egberts, a subsidiary of JDE Peet’s, a coffee and tea company headquartered in The Netherlands.

Even so, the false information linking Nga to the brand is again making rounds on Facebook and other social media platforms, this time amid calls for boycotts against other brands for unrelated matters.

On March 16, the Facebook user “Pak Andi” in a post claimed that Old Town White Coffee should be boycotted because “its owner, Nga Kor Ming often insults Islam”.

The post, which received 10,000 shares, did not provide evidence of the claim.

Last year, the same boycott call was made against the restaurant chain after Nga, who is housing and local government minister, spoke out against the use of replica firearms or toy weapons during events to mark Palestine Solidarity Week in schools

Origin of Nga-Old Town allegations

While the origin of the claim that Nga owns the restaurant chain is unclear, the allegation was amplified in 2015, when it was repeated by then agriculture and agro-based industry minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Ismail at the time used the restaurant chain as an example of how Malays continue to patronise “Chinese businesses” whose halal status is “suspect”.

Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming

In calling for Malays to boycott Chinese businesses, he gave the example of Old Town White Coffee being owned by the “Ngeh family (of) Perak DAP, who are anti-Islam”.

Nga is the cousin of DAP’s Beruas MP Ngeh Koo Ham, who at the time lodged a police report against Ismail over the claim that he is anti-Islam.

Police opened an investigation over the matter but no action was taken against Ismail, who later served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022.

In response to Ismail, Old Town White Coffee - which at the time was listed on Bursa Malaysia - said none of its board members are active members of any political party.

“We would also like to clarify once again that Old Town White Coffee is not affiliated with any political party, or any politician as recently alleged by a certain public figure, nor does the company have any political interests,” the company’s chairperson at the time, Ahmed Tasir, said in a statement.

Halal-certified

Responding to Ismail’s claim on the halal status, Ahmed said the chain of restaurants does not serve non-halal food or beverages and is halal-certified. The chain received halal certification in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Development Department (Jakim), which issues halal certification, in 2020 confirmed the chain’s halal status.

This was in response to disinformation claiming that the restaurant’s curry mee dish was made using pork.

Allegations of being anti-Islam have dogged the Nga-Ngeh cousins for much of their political career, at times leading to violence and intimidation.

On March 7, notes threatening Nga for being “anti-Islam” were scattered in front of his parents’ home in Perak.

On Jan 9, Ngeh’s home and three vehicles were set alight in alleged arson. Four days later, police arrested a man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail into the house compound. - Mkini