It takes decades to 'soften' the brains of both Malays and non-Malays, in much the same way as when we try to tenderise tough mutton. The process takes more than a few minutes Consuming too much MSG can cause headaches, obesity, affect the reproductive organs, and brain damage; but it appears that eating kangaroo, horse, meat of unknown origin, and diseased animals, could cause selective amnesia and denial syndrome.

Jakim (Department of Islamic Development) is the only authority which can issue halal certificates, but when the meat cartel scandal broke, the denials from the Malay-Muslim government and the billion-ringgit funded Jakim were swift. The minister for religious affairs said that there were no reports of Jakim officials being linked with the scandal and expressed confidence that no Jakim officers were involved.

How naïve is the minister? Why would anyone admit guilt? The Malay gullibility factor explains how the felon, Najib Abdul Razak, managed to avoid censure. When will Malay leaders have the courage to tell the truth and act decisively? Instead of punishing the criminals, many Malay leaders stupidly want to give the wrongdoers an honourable exit. No-one is punished. We fail to learn from our mistakes, then sit tight, for the next scandal to erupt.

Having paid a visit to Jakim's laboratory the minister said, “...thank god, what I saw was proof of their earnestness." Despite the earnestness and the state-of-the-art laboratory, the Jakim officials have been unable to detect any diseased meat for 40 years. Any cook worth his salt can detect kangaroo meat from beef, just by looking at it. You do not need a laboratory for that.

What did the minister see? What does he mean by their earnestness? Joe Public thinks that these officials are 'earnestly' trying to cover up their involvement.

Demands for compensation

In previous years, the Chemistry Department would perform tests to confirm the presence of porcine DNA in various food products like butter, sauces, coffee and chocolates. Good scientific practice means that other laboratories will emulate the test and duplicate the results. However, the requests for an explanation of the test methods were never granted. Why is the Chemistry Department refusing to share them?

In 2014, a group of sanctimonious Malay NGOs alleged that they had eaten contaminated chocolates. They held a press conference and shed tears, showed extreme anguish, feared that their children's flesh and blood were contaminated with pork DNA and demanded blood transfusions. They alleged that Cadbury chocolates contained pork DNA.

During their highly comical press conference, there were demands for compensation or a fine of RM1 billion for mental health issues and psychological trauma to them and their children. There were also calls to burn down Cadbury's factory and boycott Kraft products.

Today, those NGOs have made no criticism of Jakim's role in this meat scandal.

Where is the assemblyperson, who last month bullied the Jaya Grocer supermarket into boarding up the non-halal food section? Isn't the four-decades-old meat scandal more serious than selling alcohol?

Where is the collective voice of PAS, which was quick to condemn drink-driving but not this meat scandal? When there is a whiff of the involvement of a Malay company (or companies), Malay civil servants or Jakim, PAS disappears into the shadows.

Muted response

Local butchers have voiced their suspicions about imported meat, but as with any legitimate complaint about wrongdoing by the authorities, the response has been muted, or non-existent.

Where is the rakyat's voice? Where are the various Malay NGOs and trade associations to demand that heads should roll?

Malays/Muslims have been eating tainted meat for at least four decades. They were lied to and cheated into paying high prices for kangaroo or horse meat, and diseased meat. The scandal can only have happened with the collusion of people, who are at the top of the pecking order, and their very powerful cronies.

The scandal has exposed the hypocrisy of the Malays. Many Malays will not visit a non-Malay/Muslim house because they do not want to eat or drink from the crockery, cutlery and glassware of the non-Muslim household. They claim that these utensils are "contaminated" but incredibly, eating tainted meat does not seem to bother them.

Ministers' heads should roll, but the authorities will drag this investigation and hope that people will forget after a few months. Meanwhile, every attempt to cover up the tracks of the wrongdoers will be made.

Malaysian taxpayers paid RM250 million for a National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) to reduce our dependence on imported beef. The NFC is another failed project and an unresolved scandal.

We seem to have the 'Sadim' touch (the opposite of the Midas touch). Anything they get involved in turns to ordure.

Finally, where are the non-Malay voices to echo those of concerned Muslim Malaysians?

Decades of brainwashing have damaged us. Many Malays dare not say anything about the halal meat issue because it involves a religious department, and few non-Malays dare to speak out because halal meat is considered a religious issue. Non-Malays justify their silence by saying "it is not our religion."

Our silence allowed the kidnapping of Indira Gandhi's daughter by her Muslim convert husband and sanctioned the snatching of the bodies of dead non-Malays from funeral parlours so that they could be given Muslim burials.

The meat scandal is a Malaysian problem because it is symptomatic of a greater disease within our society. When is the ordinary Malaysian going to stand up for something for once in his life, instead of offering excuses to avoid involvement?