No cheer as govt buckles in Timah furore

 

From Ravinder Singh

Deputy domestic trade and consumer affairs minister Rosol Wahid has put it very succinctly that “no matter what it is called, it is unimportant” when talking about the furore created by some bigots and racists around Timah the whisky.

He was agreeing with Azalina Othman, the prime minister’s advisor on law and human rights, who said that there is an important need to educate the public to think more logically, after the issue was turned into one about “a drinkable Malay lady”!

The bigots seem to have a great power of imagination but are sadly lacking in rationality, reason or logic.

Rosol had gone on to say, and very correctly, that if this kind of furore (or feigned furore, really) over non-issues is not stopped, there would be no end to the trend! He couldn’t be more correct on this.

At the same time, the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry, together with other ministries and agencies, had a meeting with the manufacturers of Timah and told Malaysians that the company had agreed to change the name and picture on the label.

So, after the holier-than-thou crowd had created a lot of smoke where there was no fire in the first place, the government and its agencies have subtly arm-twisted the company to “agree” to re-name their product.

We don’t have to mention the consequences of not complying, as everyone knows what will happen. So, the government takes a euphemistic approach to inform the public that it was the company’s “voluntary” decision!

What do Rosol and Azalina have to say now over this decision? The government is seen to be doing exactly what Rosol said it should not do and has set a precedent.

I have a few pertinent questions here.

For example, will parents need to get government approval when naming their new-born children, so that no “sensitive” names are given to any non-Muslim children even if they do it unwittingly?

It would be understandable if there was substance in the complaints. But there isn’t any. It was all a case of empty barrels making a lot of noise. I would recommend that these bigots  listen to people who have a very good knowledge of Islam commenting on the Timah issue.

Now the Timah distillers might as well pack up and go elsewhere – like what Grab did.

How is it that the religiously “sensitive” people are not sensitive to all the truly unIslamic goings-on like corruption, crime, drug abuse and trafficking, baby dumping, and stealing from public coffers as reported in the Auditor-General’s reports?

How is it that these pious people have not been able to enforce the 1996 Malaysian fatwa that smoking is haram? Doesn’t this make a mockery of the fatwa and of those who were behind it?

So sorry for you, Timah! - FMT

Ravinder Singh is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.