BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners' Association (Presma) expressed regret over the action of an irresponsible individual who has been urging the public not to patronise nasi kandar restaurants nationwide, following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presma committee member Abdul Aziz Shaik Ahmad said the ill-intent statement, which has been making its rounds on social media, had affected their businesses and destroyed their credibility in the present recovery movement control order phase.
The message, labelled as a "code red reminder", urged Malaysians to "stay away from mamak and nasi kandar restaurants throughout Malaysia", citing, albeit incoherently, the strain of Covid-19 from India "that has arrived in KL and has the potential of spreading all over the country."
Aziz said the statement was only to scare the public, when in fact, all restaurant operators adhered to the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the government.
"We want to say here that such action is disgusting and only hurts the image of the mamak eateries.
"It is not right (for the individual) to do that, at a time when everyone is working hard to restore their own economy after being affected due to the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO), Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) and Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO)," he told newsmen here today.
Aziz, who operates a nasi kandar restaurant here, said just as their businesses were starting to pick up a little, new Covid-19 cases reported in the state had led to their businesses being affected again.
He said people feared dining out, and with such a statement being made by an irresponsible individual, it was not helping the situation.
As such, he added, Presma had lodged a police report against the individual for uploading the statement.
"Many of the workers at nasi kandar restaurants are from India. It is not like they get to return to their home country during the MCO.
"There may be one Covid-19 cluster linked to a nasi kandar restaurant, but it is not right to involve all other restaurants as well," he added.
Last month, Nasi Kandar Salleh in Napoh, near Jitra in Kedah, was identified as the source of the Sivagangga Covid-19 cluster and was ordered to close.
The owner of the nasi kandar restaurant, the index case of the Sivagangga cluster, was fined RM12,000 and jailed five months for violating home quarantine orders.