In the old days the sheriffs in the American West would use the jail to lock up thieves, bank robbers and criminals, but it was a no-no for social and domestic offenders who were let off with a warning or perhaps with a fine.

There you go. Vivian Lee was sentenced to six months’ jail for something like posting a modern ‘art piece’ using the ‘halal’ caption during Ramadan for a local ‘bak kut the’ delicacy, and this was claimed by some quarters to have sensationalised racial sentiments and anger. Seemingly, as they see it, it would disrupt peace and order, too.

Of course there is a Chinese adage which says in Cantonese, “Yat choong mai yong park choong yan” (A standard rice that feeds a hundred people). Simply said, in our society you do not know your friends or foes, though all of them eat and drink in the same shop.

So it was too harsh to punish Vivian Lee for just posting something for a prank, just because some quarters see it with a different angle (view) and were allegedly emotionally hurt by the piece of artwork.

Such pranks are common over TV series and talk shows in the US, the UK and Australia.

Surely, you have seen TV talk shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Shannondale, David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres and others - somehow, all have sometime talked about the good and bad of people in office in the White House including the US president.  

Of course you have heard and seen how daring these TV talk show hosts talked about the president of the United States of America ‘live’, and yet they all got away scot-free.

Perhaps, the US government sees that was part of TV entertainment in show business.

A fact is a fact - I mean for openly criticising the White House and the president on TV. They (talk show hosts) were lucky that it is happening in the US where there is freedom of radio and TV broadcasting and also rights on public speaking.

We know ‘bak kut teh’ if translated word by word would read like this, ‘meat, bone, tea’. The ‘Tea’ is actually a kind of stew soup. You could have a bowl of ‘chik kut teh’ too in Klang if you do not like having the traditional type.

Actually, during the 30s to 40s, the ‘bak kut teh’ was sold at a price which included a small pot of Chinese tea as a standard serving to let the customers wash down the oil in the food. Today, the Chinese tea is an optional item and is served with a charge on request.

Now you know why it is called ‘bak kut teh’. That is, meat for ‘bak’, bone for ‘kut’ and Chinese tea for ‘teh’.

Content taken out of context

Thus, it seems the content had been taken out of context.

By the way, to you all ‘bak kut teh’ lovers, you can still have a bowl of traditional ‘bak kut teh’ served in some eateries in Klang.  

In fact, I did not have to  go that far for my ‘bak kut teh’. I was taken by my father to a roadside eatery in Jalan Pasar, off Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur when I was a little boy, in the late 40s to have a bowl for dinner. It was sold with a bowl of rice for about Malaya $0.80 and $0.85 if a piece of ‘yeow cha kwai’ Chinese croissant was added.

So, Malaysians have adapted a long time ago or rather used to see or to be around such places selling ‘bak kut teh’. Why now in the 21st Century? Really, it has become so sensitive and a fearful to some people even just to walk past the place.

Apparently, Vivien Lee is not a crook nor a criminal, for just having done something with ‘bak kut teh’ that seemed to have offended some people.  

Whatever, people said, “She had only committed an offence, of course not a crime, so she had done nothing like robbing someone and neither had she killed somebody.” This is true.

In view of the above circumstances and because sales and eating of ‘bak kut teh’ are synonymous to Malaysians by and large, it brings the rakyat (those with a caring heart and compassion) to mind to appeal for clemency for Vivien Lee, that is, to have her six months’ jail sentence commuted to house arrest or just for a small fine.

The local authorities could get her to do social services like sweeping the roads in shopping centres, picking up litter and clearing rubbish from 9am to 12pm daily, Monday to Friday.  Saturdays she could go help out at rehabilitation centres.

Yes, she should be given a holiday on Sundays and on public holidays.

To ensure that everything goes on schedule, she should report daily at the nearest police station to register for her duty for the day.

LAU BING is a community activist and writer in Subang Jaya.