It is suprising to read the insistence of some within the opposition to ban beer sales in West Malaysia. I find that there is a lot of hypocrisy in this matter.

In Malaysia, more people die of stroke and diabetes. In fact many people are dying younger. It is no longer unusual for those in their 20s to die of stroke. This is all due to the increased consumption of high-fat food and sweet food and drinks. This coupled with the lack of exercise is a major cause of death in Malaysia.

When Azalina Othman was the federal sports minister, she initiated the National Fitness Council to address this problem. However I am not sure how far the NFC is reaching out to people now.

Popular Malaysian foods such as nasi lemak and sweet drinks like sodas and teh tarik are a major contributor to dangerous diseases.

Yet, the opposition continues to harp on petty issues like the sale of beer. Beer is neither liquor nor spirit. Somebody needs to tell the opposition this. Most alcoholics do not drink beer. They go for stronger drinks like brandy and spirits. There are many Malaysian-made liquor and spirits that are very cheap and easily available from grocery stores.

Beer does not make one drunk, unless excessively taken. But then again, beer is too expensive to be drunk in large quantities. A standard bottle of beer costs RM12. A similar sized bottle of Malaysian brandy costs between RM8 to RM15 and do bear in mind that the alcohol content is between 35 to 40 percent.

More people have lost their husbands, wives and parents due to cholesterol and sugar-related diseases as compared to alcohol-related diseases. In fact, more people die in road accidents while sober.

Therefore when former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that the government’s decision to raise the price of beer in 2004 was to encourage a healthy lifestyle, I was wondering why not raise the price of butter, margarine, sugar and cooking oil as well. These have contributed to more deaths and diseases compared to beer!

More Malaysians drink soda (including Coca Cola and 7up) than beer. Perhaps the opposition should campaign for the government to put pictures of people losing their limbs due to diabetes on soda cans. After all, that is what they do with cigarette packets. And maybe margarine cans should have pictures of real-life stroke victims.

The opposition’s insistence that beer sales should be banned in Muslim majority areas is confusing. Malaysia is a Muslim majority country, so should we ban beer entirely? Even the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a beer industry. In fact the Murree beer of Pakistan established in 1860, is very popular even in India.

The conclusion here is that if beer is to be banned because of the negative health effects, then why not ban the sale of high cholesterol and high sugar foods as well. And if beer is considered offensive to Muslims, then place them in non-halal sections of shops. The opposition should work for a healthier Malaysia, as some of their members too seem to have died of health-related problems.