KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 ― Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan just can’t seem to get a break, even on the first day of Ramadan.
His suggestion for Muslims to break their fast today with his repackaged “GST-free Nasi Goreng Ahmad Maslan”, which he dubbed “NGAM”, was met with fiery heat on Twitter.
“One of the suggestions to break fast and Sahur (this) Ramadhan is NGAM, Ahmad Maslan Fried Rice without GST if cooked yourself!” the Umno man posted on his Twitter account, @ahmadmaslan just hours before the evening meal that follows the day-long fast for Muslims.
The message was accompanied with screenshots of his previous GST-free fried rice posts on June 7 and 14 respectively.
Twitter users immediately responded with over 800 tweets within the first 45 minutes of the message popping up.
Many chided the deputy minister for the tweet, labelling him foolish and insensitive for “not understanding the suffering of the people”.
“Looks like you're making a fool out of yourself. Not tired of being stupid?” said a Twitter user with the handle @FiqrieF.
Another, Rais Hussin blasted “a very stupid suggestion that will only make people angrier. Are you having fun teasing rakyat?”
However, Ahmad was not without his supporters, among them Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
In his tweet, Khairy gave his thumbs up for the NGAM dish.
“I will break fast with NGAM ― Nasi Goreng Ahmad Maslan. The best,” Khairy said on his account, @Khairykj, which has since been shared over 800 times.
Ahmad has come under great heat for defending Putrajaya's introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in April.
The deputy minister however has taken the brickbats against him in his stride over his “GST-free” fried rice recipe, even appearing to take pride in the opprobrium.
On Sunday Ahmad posted a picture of him with the fried rice that he cooked using GST-free ingredients, the latest posting in a series of efforts to convince Malaysians via social media that they had the option to avoid paying the consumption tax.
As with his previous posts on the GST, the picture was immediately ridiculed with many accusing the minister of faking the picture as his fried rice dish looked too nice.
His detractors also said Ahmad again failed to see the point of public protest against the GST with his use of his fried rice dish to demonstrate that the tax was not burdensome to consumers.
They pointed out that there is a disconnect between the reality of rising prices and Ahmad’s claim that the consumption tax has had little effect on inflation despite surveys showing prices of basic goods have risen sharply since the GST roll out.
