YOURSAY | A ‘simple lunch’ that cost RM350 per head

YOURSAY | ‘The dishes look ‘ordinary’ but the price is ‘extraordinary’...’

FT minister downplays MPs' RM6k lunch, says dishes look 'ordinary'

MS: Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa is absolutely correct. 

This is the same simple lunch enjoyed by the Malay masses in the kampungs and the urban PPR (Program Perumahan Rakyat) ghettos.

That is the only reason the representatives of the rakyat are lunching like this - to 'empathise' with those they represent and to give the world an insight into their 'daily struggles'.

And speaking of struggles, how do you expect the unflinching warriors we all respect to continue their 'for bangsa dan agama' (race and religion) mantra without even a sampling of the required daily allowance of Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E, finished off with a platter of freshly cut local fruit?

So let's all be fair now. Criticise excess, yes. But not this act of 'simple living'.

Vijay47: As I have feared for a long time, Covid-19 has other serious effects that the public may not be aware of. What is even stranger is that the disease is more likely to affect people of a particular political persuasion.

Thus, we have some specimens claiming that appointment to head government-linked companies (GLCs) is based on ability and merit, another arguing that he did not order, he just requested, and yesterday’s pearl where a lawman reached the amazing conclusion that “will consider” in English actually means “have agreed”.

And before you can recover from either Covid or sheer idiocy, today we encounter another person who defends a RM6,525 meal for 18 politicians by explaining that the dishes “look ordinary”.

When did we protest about how the dishes looked, whether they came with a sprig of orchid or a dollop of caviar at the side, with ikan bilis sambal around the edges?

We were outraged with the cost. Cost, you know, ‘harga’ - money, wang, kasse, chien, paise.

Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah, please put out an APB (all-points bulletin), that the new SOP (standard operating procedure) now includes staying away from Umno leaders.

Clearwater: The dishes look ‘ordinary’ but the price is ‘extraordinary’ - at RM6,525 or RM362.50 per head for the 18 persons in the photo.

How many of us ever splurged that much on ourselves for lunch and call it ordinary without a twinge of shame?

Open Mind: It is pointless for the federal territories minister to say whether the dishes look ordinary or otherwise. The bill states the food cost RM6,525.

The attendees did not dispute that. The question is - who pays for the lunch? And is this a normal daily lunch get-together?

Odysseus: There are two points raised by Annuar’s comment on the food that looks ordinary.

First, someone has stupidly ‘overpaid’ for the ‘ordinary’ food. Second, if having prawns and ikan patin are ordinary for him, then it shows he is out of touch with the rakyat on the ground.

Furthermore, the lunch was sponsored by GLCs, which is supposed to make money for the rakyat and not spend lavishly on selected VIPs.

BusinessFirst: Now it all makes sense to me. As you say, these are ordinary dishes, yet you were willing to pay over RM6,000 when the real cost is probably only several hundred.

No wonder all the businesses you and your Perikatan Nasional (PN) types are run into the ground to bankruptcy and need to be bailed out by the taxpaying public.

No wonder when you negotiate the Goldman Sachs settlement it was widely panned and the investment bank CEO went back to celebrate (don't take my word for it, see what Bloomberg reported).

No wonder the country is where it is now - financially strapped because we have people who do not know the value of money, how to earn it, how to preserve it, and how to grow it.

Instead, the people of PN only know how to find short cuts by means fair or foul to acquire the same, and even shorter cuts to spend it.

It’s sad that the frugal ways of Nik Aziz Nik Mat, Ismail Abdul Rahman, Ahmad Ibrahim, Abdul Razak Hussein, and Mohamed Suffian Mohamed Hashim have been replaced by PN leaders who have no qualms driving multiple luxury cars bedecked with Rolexes and whose spouses similarly bedecked with gold and diamonds carrying Hermes and Prada bags.

Fredtan: Gosh, Annuar really sets a high standard; he claimed a meal of over RM6,000 for several MPs was ordinary. How much then will special dishes be - RM30,000?

The meal I had with my family of three, which cost over RM80, must be a pauper dish.

Salvage Malaysia: I’m not a fan of PN but it doesn’t mean that MPs must eat and live like misers. Stop politicising everything.

Tembikai: If it is their own personal fund, they can even eat and spend millions, but ministerial funds are from the rakyat. They should spend rakyat's money carefully, especially with so many unemployed now.

As a rakyat, ‘saya tidak halalkan apa yang mereka telah buat’ (I don’t approve what they did).

BlackPanda2317: If this was a responsible corporate company, this expense would not be approved and will be escalated to senior management for further investigation, review, and justification.

If there is no reasonable explanation for such spending, disciplinary action will appropriately follow.

Harimau_Arif: Using multinational companies as an example, the daily meal expense per person during travel is US$65, which is about RM273. That amount is for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The PN lunch is over RM350 per person. That’s one lunch. And here, we have the minister coming out to say that having such a lunch is normal.

Fellow voters, please wake up before Malaysia is bankrupt by these politicians.

Oriole: Why don't these fat cat MPs use this money to feed the growing numbers of homeless in the heart of Kuala Lumpur?

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