AFFECT EVERYONE

while our lives go on la dolce vita. Imagine if we were to change “The Better Beer Festival” to “The Better Drugs Festival”, I believe our community, irrespective of race and religion, will be fighting against it, no matter how great the advertisement.

Regardless of holding the event in public or private spaces with security measures, there is always a risk of someone circumventing the regulations in place. In other words, can we really trust them not to defy the law?

Let us go beyond Malaysia’s multiracial background and take a look at the United Kingdom. According to a report conducted by the University of Sheffield’s Alcohol Research Group, alcohol consumption, over the next five years, will cause 63,000 deaths due to heavy drinking.

These alcoholics are believed to have succumbed to painful and emotionally harrowing liver disease. This will cost the National Health Service RM93.07 billion. The price is this: disease, death and health costs.

The warning of a terrorist attack echoes that of the Oktoberfest bombing on Sept 26, 1980, in Germany, with a right-wing radical killing 13 people and injuring 219, many losing limbs.

The attack was attributed to a right-wing extremist student, Gundolf Köhler, who placed an explosive device at the site of the festival.

Of course, there has been no such untoward incident in our country. However, we cannot deny the fact that terrorist attacks have happened elsewhere in Southeast Asia and can happen here.

The banning of the Better Beer Festival 2017 by the authorities is the right thing to do and not about showing disrespect for the community we live in.

Love it or hate it, social problems will not only beset non-Muslims and non-Malays; they affect everyone. Live well, and, as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure.