Punish us, we need to learn

I REFER to the article, “Lee: Punish Malaysians who continue to waste food” ( The Star, May 21).

I would have to strongly agree with the social activist, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

Malaysians in general have a habit of wasting food, and that is not something to be proud of.

Many educational and awareness programmes to prevent food wastage have been conducted, but why aren’t the results better? The change in us has to begin now.

It should be our responsibility to know not to be wasteful of anything at all, especially food. We have to strive to be better, for the good of our future and future generations.

It is also shocking to know that we waste 17,800 tonnes of food every day. We can feed so many underprivileged and homeless people with that amount of food, but Malaysians are still taking things for granted.

I feel so sorry for the Earth, we seem to be destroying everything.

Slapping fines on customers who waste food at all-you-can eat restaurants could be the first punishment in curbing this nationwide problem.

That way, customers will be more sensitive while taking their food, even more so as we welcome the month of Ramadan.

Malaysians should be grateful for how much natural resources and food we have in our homeland, something many countries do not have. Wastage is something we all have to work together to prevent.

Sometimes, we have to learn things the hard way. Maybe punishments could be just what we all need. IMELDA IZZUDDIN Kuala Lumpur