Has it ever happened to you? While sitting at your usual breakfast spot, on a plastic chair that wobbles, ordering your usual nasi lemak bungkus and teh tarik kurang manis. But when the packet arrives, it’s familiar yet different.
You unwrap the brown paper and find a pyramid of rice so small it looks like a snack for a toddler. The hard-boiled egg, which is usually cut in half or sometimes quartered, is now cut into a one-eighth piece. As for the ikan bilis? I counted three.
On paper, the Malaysian economy is doing great. If you listen to the experts, our GDP is growing, and our inflation is under control. But as I stared at my three lonely bilis, I realised we are living in the era of “Shrinkflation”.
The problem with big economic numbers is that they don’t eat at the warung. A politician can stand at a podium and say the economy is resilient, but they aren’t the ones trying to feed a family on a budget that hasn’t changed while the grocery bag gets lighter every week.
Look at the latest data from the Statistics Department. Their recent Basic Expenditure for Decent Living Index revealed certain issues that we should pay close attention to. Shah Alam has officially overtaken Kuala Lumpur as the most expensive city to live in.
If you live in the Petaling district, you’re basically paying a luxury tax just to exist. A family here needs about RM6,000 plus a month just to have a decent life. That’s RM1,200 more than what you’d need in the middle of KL.
We used to move to the suburbs to save money. That was the place where you could afford a slightly bigger house with a small garden and affordable places to eat. But now, we move to the suburbs to spend more on petrol and higher rent while our nasi lemak portions shrink.
A two-faced Malaysia
While most of us are counting our ikan bilis, there’s a weird trend happening in the fancy malls. I call it the Gentrification of the Kampung. You can go to a high-end restaurant in Bangsar or Bukit Bintang and find the same nasi lemak you’d get at a roadside stall.
But because it’s served on a fancy plate in an air-conditioned room, it costs RM30 to RM50. The everyday man’s breakfast has turned into a rich man’s indulgence. We are a nation that is happy to pay RM60 for pasta, but gets angry if the mak cik at the corner raises her price by 50 sen.
This forces the small vendors to shrink their portions just to survive, while the big restaurants sell the aesthetic of being Malay at a 500 percent markup. What do you think about the irony we’re currently living in?
We are also living in a two-faced Malaysia. On one side, we have the smart living push. If you notice, this past month, we’ve been inundated with advertisements for AI-powered washing machines and fridges that cost a year’s housing loan instalment.
Basically, we are being told to embrace the high-tech future. But on the other side, our basic stuff is breaking. We are told to buy smart appliances, but we still have to move our furniture upstairs every time it rains for 40 minutes because the drains in Shah Alam can’t cope.
We are building a world-class ceiling, but we are standing on a rotting floor. The disconnect is everywhere. We are told the ringgit is strong, yet we feel poorer at the supermarket. We are a “Global Tech Hub”, but our cities still drown in flash floods.
We celebrate our culture in RM60 boutique nasi lemak, while the people who actually make the food have to eat shrinking nasi lemak bungkus and are most probably struggling to pay rent. Again, I ask, what do you think about that irony we’re currently living in?
Slipping out of reach
If we want to fix the Malaysian Dream, we need to stop obsessing over GDP percentages and start looking at the “Ikan Bilis Index”. We need to measure success by how much money a family has left at the end of the month, not by how many big buildings we can build.
The Malaysian Dream shouldn't be bite-sized. It should be as big and generous as the nasi lemak I remember from 10 years ago. The kind of nasi lemak with a whole half-egg and enough rice to actually keep you full until lunch.
We need an economy where the portion finally matches the promise. Because 1/8th of an egg isn’t just a bad breakfast, it’s a sign that a decent life is slipping out of reach for the rest of us. So, what do you think about the irony we’re currently living in? - Mkini
ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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