PETALING JAYA, April 1 — Malaysian Facebook users were furious when photos of unopened bags of Gardenia lying in a rubbish pile were shared online.
This comes as many Malaysians lament about not being able to find bread at their local shops due to panic buying under the movement control order (MCO).
It’s not clear where the photos of the discarded loaves were taken but they were first posted on a community page for residents of Banting, Selangor called @Mybanting.
“During the MCO, so many can’t find bread in the stores and here you have someone who bought it and decided to throw it away.
“Everyone, please don’t waste food. There are a lot of people who don’t have enough to eat,” said the page’s admin.
Facebook users chimed in with their mutual disappointment and outrage in the comments section, with one user labelling the individual who dumped the bread “greedy and unethical.”
Another user called Gavin Siew shared a photo of a similar incident, in which an unopened bag of rice had been dumped alongside household waste.
One user wrote that dumping food was akin to throwing away good fortune and that the culprits would be cursed with bad luck in the future.
Others were also concerned about the wasteful nature of hoarding, a sad consequence of the panic buying that broke out in the days before the MCO kicked in on March 18.
Bread has been particularly hard to come by in some shops, prompting Gardenia to come out with a statement on March 23 to reassure its customers.
The breadmakers stated that their production was already at the “maximum level” and urged people to keep their purchases at the normal level of consumption.
