Mamak restaurants, a common term for Indian Muslim eateries, came under the spotlight at a Transformasi Nasional (TN50) dialogue session between Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and youths, last night.

When the topic of mamak food possibly causing unhealthy eating habits and the cleanliness of such restaurants cropped up, Tengku Adnan revealed that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had once planned to reduce the number of 24-hour mamak restaurants, but "dared not" do it, as it was an upopular idea.

"All we need them (mamak restaurants) to do sometimes, is clean and disinfect their restaurants," he said.

As the dialogue proceeded, an Indian Muslim man stood up to defend mamak eateries, saying although the operators of the restaurants were "tired" of running the joints round the clock, at the same time, hungry people need to be fed.

He cited the example of factory workers and others who worked on late night shifts or on overtime, who came to mamak restaurants to eat, when most other restaurants were closed.

“Don’t blame mamak restaurants for all the problems (of obesity), the government should stop junk food and the roadside stalls instead.

“We are Muslim and we care about cleanliness, that’s why we serve clean food to our customers,” he said, to an applause from the 850-strong crowd at the ‘Federal Territories - The Future of my Country’ session in Bandar Tun Razak last night.

A majority of the attendees were university students and young professionals living in the capital city.

Earlier, Khairy had dismissed the notion that mamak restaurants were the cause of obesity among Malaysians, saying the problem was instead caused by bad eating habits.

One of the participants had earlier said Malaysians do not need round-the-clock eateries as they were unhygienic and caused many people to stay up late at night.

"Young Malaysians like to lepak (hang out) at mamak, watching football till late at night, only to skip work the next day," he claimed.

To this, Khairy put out a question to the floor, asking if the participants agreed that the operation of 24-hour mamak restaurants should be halted.

No one raised their hands.

The government has been holding TN50 townhall-style dialogue sessions across the country since January this year, in a bid to allow Malaysians to express their aspirations for Malaysia, leading up to 2050.