Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) recently launched a user-friendly menu, Menu Rahmah. Menu Rahmah is the government’s initiative to provide a cheap meal for Malaysians at only RM4.90.
Menu Rahmah existed due to many concerns about pricey foods in some local restaurants and warungs. On social media, many Malaysians shared their unpleasant experience paying more than they could afford for a meal.
Therefore, many food sellers unite to make true of the Menu Rahmah. For example, Mydin has been loud and clear about this menu on their socials. The menus they serve sure look delicious!
Interestingly, Mydin offers a variety of Menu Rahmah every day. Now, this is what we call creativity in selling! Malaysians can taste different dishes every day.
We believe others are also stepping up their game. This is the time for food vendors to wear their thinking caps and create delicious menus for the Menu Rahmah.
Menu Rahmah from food chains? Does it make sense?
Despite the warm acceptance of many people on the cheap menu, some people like to question everything.
what is this behaviour? (@doqtahu) shared a tweet that questioned the legitimacy of the menu.
The person asked, “Why did McD and KFC have no Menu Rahmah? It shows the government are forcing small food business owners that are majorly Malay [to create this menu]. However, they fear big food chains like these.”
Furthermore, the person said, “Starbucks is so expensive. Where’s the Menu Rahmah [for Starbucks]? Don’t [imply this initiative] to Malays only.”
We think this person might not understand the purpose of Menu Rahmah.
The initiative suits local food vendors because Malaysians often have lunch at warungs and restaurants. It focuses on Malaysia’s staple food, rice. Do McD and KFC sell rice, a source of protein with vegetables? Does Starbucks even sell rice?
Sometimes we can’t have good things. This is one of the reasons.
Malaysians unite to slam this ‘clownery’
One of the things that unite Malaysians is food. We take our food seriously.
Netizens fume over this person’s controversial opinion. Many don’t understand why this person said it in the first place.
Some also lecture about the purpose of the menu.
The government should rectify the prices of ingredients
From the perspective of the restaurant owners, they are just doing their job, which is to provide and serve food to the customers. If we look closely, ingredients like poultry, seafood and basic kitchen staples aren’t cheap. It might be because of the unstable economic condition of the country that leads many food business owners to charge more than the production value. Who wants to have an unprofitable business? No one.
This is another concern that the government should keep an eye on. There must be a way to fix and standardise the prices of ingredients in Malaysia. Malaysia imports more than exports. We don’t have a stable income from basic food supplies like sugar and rice. The country import rice mainly from Thailand and sugar from India. We don’t produce much, and that’s a concern.
How long will this issue happen? For how long do Malaysians struggle with the inconsistent price of food ingredients? We hope it won’t be long.
Sources: Twitter what is this behaviour? (@doqtahu), Facebook KPDN Laman Rasmi, Facebook MYDIN Malaysia