When economy rice is priced as a ‘luxury meal’

Compiled by BENJAMIN LEE, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

A PACK of chap fan (mixed rice) costing RM13 caused a furore on social media, with users divided over whether it was reasonably priced or too costly, China Press reported.

The debate was sparked after a picture of the economy rice, purchased recently in Johor Baru, was shared on a local Facebook group.

It showed a polystyrene container filled with rice, various vegetables and a hard-boiled egg.

“Johor Baru tapau (takeaway). RM13 and no meat. What does everyone think?” stated the caption.

There were polarising responses, with many Johoreans saying they could get economy rice elsewhere with meat and fish for the same price.

Some even joked that the shop had charged more because it thought the customer worked in Singapore.

“They could smell the Singapore dollars on you, hence charged you a ‘cheaper’ price,” one user wrote.

However, there were others who thought that the price was reasonable and the food appeared delicious, with some telling the uploader to cook if they thought the economy rice was too expensive.

> A Malayan tapir caused a stir among residents after wandering into a neighbourhood in Muar, Johor, Sin Chew Daily reported.

It was caught on CCTV walking outside a row of houses in Taman Jaya at 3.50am. Several residents woke up after dogs began barking.

While no one saw the animal itself, some residents discovered it was a tapir after inspecting their CCTV footage.

The footage was submitted to the Muar Municipal Council in hopes that the animal could be captured and released back into the wild.

It is believed the tapir had wandered into the neighbourhood in search of food after rapid development destroyed its natural habitat.

The Malayan tapir is an endangered animal.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.