The latest round of fighting kicked off with Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming saying those who made an issue out of the word ham were being “idiots”.
Nga argued that ham is just a food processing method and that there is turkey and chicken ham.
“To make an issue out of it simply shows who is the real idiot,” Nga posted on X on Tuesday night.
Akmal responded yesterday evening that Nga was the stupid one.
He said Nga should refer to his officers or a dictionary - such as Oxford’s Learner’s Dictionary - where ham is defined as a cured leg of pork.
The Umno leader said that if ham is made from other animals then it must be stated as such, and not be called as such.
“Please hide your stupidity,” Akmal said.
The drama is over ham and cheese sandwiches bearing the halal logo found at some KK Mart outlets.
Akmal and others had criticised how ham products could be labelled as halal.
It was later determined that the ham was made of chicken, although the company that made the sandwich was not certified to put a halal logo on the packaging.
‘This should be beneath Akmal’
Responding to Akmal’s dictionary attack on Nga, DAP Youth chief Woo Kah Leong retorted with his own linguistics lesson today.
He said in linguistics there is a concept of “semantic broadening”, in which the meaning of a word becomes wider and more inclusive as time passes because of multiple factors including culture, history, social developments, and so on.
“As such, the meaning of the word ‘ham’ has also been broadened and now refers to various types of ham including chicken, turkey, and beef ham,” he said in a statement.
Woo added that in the Malaysian context, where the majority are Muslims, traders would not dare to challenge Muslim sensitivities to avoid their businesses being shut down and would only sell ham that is not made of pork.
“Whether a trader that sells ham - of chicken, beef, and others - has a valid halal certificate, is another matter,” he said.
Woo then took a swing at Akmal, saying it was beneath a party’s youth chief to try and score points over the ham issue.
“The passage of time has seen developments in various matters, but there are still some who live like they are still in the palaeolithic age.
“It is very embarrassing to be a doctor but still not as advanced in mind like the Perikatan Nasional extremists, either they are pretending to be dumb or they are really dense,” he said.
The DAP Youth chief also accused Akmal of attacking allies in government while being soft on the “green party”, referring to PAS. - Mkini
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