Two Sarawak noodles, only one with GST

A bowl of mee kolok

KUCHING: More East Malaysians should have been involved in preparations on the Goods and Services Tax to avoid confusion on items such as Sarawak's famous mee kolok, said Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen.

Chong said confusion arose on two types of noodles - mee kolok is not GST zero-rated while the mee kuning is.

Chong, who is Bandar Kuching MP, said the confusion was due to the list of GST-free items being drafted by peninsular Malaysians.

"The drafters were mostly West Malaysians. They probably didn't know in Sarawak there is such a thing as mee kolok, which is basically the same thing as mee kuning," Chong told a press conference here on Friday.

Chong called for mee kolok to be included as zero-rated under the GST. He urged decision making bodies in Putrajaya to include more Sarawakian and Sabahans in the future.

Mee kolok is a daily dish at Sarawak's kopitiams and is as common as Sarawak Laksa.

"The confusion over mee kuning and mee kolok shows that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Even some big retail chains are confused when they collect GST on newspapers," Chong added.