NOVEMBER 13 — Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainudin reportedly said that the government is considering creating a law to segregate trolleys for halal and non-halal items at supermarkets.

Non-halal products, he said, can be carried in a red trolley and halal items in a trolley of a different colour.

He also said there should be special check-out counters at supermarkets for non-halal products. The minister claimed that paying for non-halal items at “regular” counters has caused problems for Muslim consumers.

The government’s proposal, which he says needed to be studied first because it involves huge costs to supermarket operators (amid a sharp drop in the country’s revenue), is utterly ridiculous and will only inconvenience shoppers, both Muslims and non-Muslims.

How will supermarkets decide the ratio of “non-halal” and “halal” trolleys? I doubt supermarkets have a breakdown according to religion in their statistics on shoppers.

What if all the “halal” trolleys were to run out? Would a Muslim be allowed to use the “non-halal” trolley even if she wanted to? Or would a supermarket turn her away for fear of having overzealous people lodging complaints against it?

Worse still, what if there were not enough “non-halal” trolleys to go around for ham lovers and beer guzzlers? Would it be a crime for such people to use the “halal” trolleys, punishable by a fine or imprisonment?

The supermarket would lose business as they’d be forced to turn away consumers of non-halal products, adrift without their red trolleys.

What about shoppers who suddenly decide to buy pork at the last minute because there’s a sale? Would they have to go all the way back, grab a “non-halal” trolley, and move all their groceries to the new trolley?

On special counters for non-halal products, does it mean that a shopper will have to go to two counters to pay for his bacon and vegetables?

The impracticalities of such a preposterous proposal are vast.

A friend of mine from Sabah recently said she had separated frozen pork dumplings from other items at the check-out counter at a supermarket and unsuccessfully tried to scan them herself, so that the Muslim cashier wouldn’t have to do it. But the Muslim cashier just grabbed the package from my friend and scanned it without blinking.   

Non-halal trolleys are seen at a local supermarket in Kuala Lumpur, November 9, 2015. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

Since the Barisan Nasional government (sometimes) likes to pride itself on protecting the diversity of multi-cultural Malaysia, why stop at segregated trolleys and counters for halal and non-halal products?

Why not also provide special trolleys separating vegetables and meat products, so as to cater for vegetarians?

Why not special check-out counters for beef products, so Hindu customers won’t be offended?

We can have red trolleys for pork and alcoholic drinks, green for vegetables, yellow for beef, pink for all meats except for pork and beef, and rainbow for the atheists who eat everything. The check-out counters at supermarkets can be similarly delineated.

There will be chaos when people try to do their grocery shopping, of course, but what’s a little inconvenience in fighting over trolleys and queuing for hours compared to protecting religious sensitivities?

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.