Since 2003, ‘Uncle Lim’ had been operating the sole Chinese food stall in the entire campus. But last May, University Malaya authorities rejected his application to continue running the business.
Reading this article reminded of similar incident in my school where the services of canteen operator uncle ‘G’ was suddenly terminated by principle because the food was deemed not halal enough although Uncle holds a certificate from Jakim. Most of my malay classmates holds the opinion that Uncle G’s food is delicious and you can always see long queues in the canteen right after the recess bell rang. The school principle then brought his relative to operate canteen. Few months after Uncle G’s sacking, the quality of the food began to deteriorate and the price was getting ridiculously expensive. The food was so terrible students began to bring their own food for recess. When the business of the canteen began to fall, the principle decided to ban students from bringing their food and insisted that we should fill ourselves in the canteen. From the incident above, it is pretty clear that the principle does not care if the students get to enjoy lousy and expensive food. He only cares for his relative’s business. You know what? his relative does not even bother to improve the quality of the food after this controversy. I was really glad it was the last year of my secondary school at that time. It does not matter if the food is served by a chinese or a Malay. The quality and the affordability of the food was in question here and it is quite obvious there was a blatant practice of nepotism in my former school.
