KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) president Datuk Jawahar Ali Taib Khan has slammed a recent viral video in which a mamak restaurant patron accused the establishment of unhygienic practices.
He said Presma, which represents more than 3,500 restaurant operators, caterers, food shops or operators related to the restaurant industry in Malaysia, strongly objected to the "blind and irresponsible accusations" made by the patron.
"These accusations are a hidden agenda of certain groups... over the years, as restaurant owners, we have seen many scammers use dirty tactics by making false accusations and even 'planting' objects and dead cockroaches in the food after they had consumed half, just so that they can leave without paying and extort money from the operators.
"We have been subjected to this kind of bad behaviour and most often as business operators we try to avoid escalations with customers and let them go without paying.
"This is just another similar tactic used by some irresponsible person to seek fame and popularity on social media," Jawahar Ali told the New Straits Times.
He said 12,000 restaurants under Presma have had enough of this kind of negative attention put on operators and will proceed with legal action on the matter.
"Irresponsible customers with bad intentions have given such a cheap view of all Muslim mamak restaurants which have provided the best service with reasonable prices. (We have) the best quality Mamak Muslim restaurants, which still practice interpersonal service and not self-service, and have made many reforms and improvements in terms of quality.
Jawahar Ali added that Mamak restaurants, as one of the icons connecting Malaysia's multiracial community, should not be unfairly labelled.
He revealed a recording of a call which followed the viral video in which another man claimed he found a cockroach in his food the day before.
The caller is heard demanding RM300 from restaurant operators and when he was asked to come to the same outlet, he did not turn up there.
Jawahar Ali said many customers do not realise the challenges operators go through daily but this sort of bad behaviour must stop immediately.
"Presma has lodged an official police complaint regarding both, the video as well as the phone call incident. We will let the police investigate the matter first," he said.
Also present was Presma vice-president Datuk Abdul Mukthahir @ Tahir and all the Presma executive committee members. - NST
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.