The closure of a beloved food stall is always a deeply felt loss.
One nasi lemak stall in Malaysia was on the brink of shuttering for good after not being able to make rent for months.
Its plight drew the attention of one faithful customer, who had been patronising the stall since he was a young boy.
Source: Facebook
Upon finding out it was about to close down, the customer decided to save it by paying one whole year’s worth of their rent at once.
In a Facebook post shared on Monday (18 Dec), user Sunny Coco talked about his love for the nasi lemak stall and how it began.
Source: Facebook
Located in Kulai, Johor, the stall has been a regular haunt of his since he was seven years old.
He added that he had introduced the stall to others countless times.
Furthermore, the stall has a rich heritage as it was passed down to the current female owner by her father, who inherited the business from her grandfather before that.
Sadly, the stall’s business was suffering due to a lack of bus stops around it, which hampered its accessibility.
This in turn led to the owner falling behind on a whole year’s worth of rent.
As a result, the local council ordered her to cease operations.
Upon hearing of her predicament, the OP gave the nasi lemak stall owner one year’s worth of rent in cash.
He then instructed her to make payment at the relevant government office that same day.
However, it appeared that the matter could not be resolved so easily.
The stall owner explained that she had already received an official letter from the ministry in charge stipulating that she must close her stall in December.
In that moment, it seemed like there was nothing more they could do.
The thought of a stall with over 50 years of history closing down enraged the OP.
Undeterred, he once again asked the stall owner to try making the payment anyway like he had instructed earlier.
“If they won’t let you rent, call me. I will ask the ministry if they are thinking of letting a foreigner rent the spot at a higher rate instead,” he wrote.
He then issued a plea for help to the government.
In doing so, he asked why the government could not help the stall owner, a single mother, when he could put race aside to pay off a year’s rent for her?
“Where is the spirit of 1 Malaysia?” he implored.
Subsequently, he reiterated that the nasi lemak stall was a family business of three generations and part of Kulai’s food culture.
Source: Facebook
As such, he had to help preserve it.
As fate would have it, it did not take long for the nasi lemak stall’s fortunes to change.
On the afternoon of the same day that the OP posted the story, he updated via the comments that the woman could now continue operating her business after all.
A government agency named Majlis Amanah Rakyat (People’s Trust Council), or MARA for short, had come across his post.
For context, the purpose of the agency is to aid, train, and guide Malays and other indigenous Malaysians.
After seeing the post, they accepted the payment of one year’s rent and agreed to continue leasing the stall to her.
He also thanked the Kulai chairman of the Malaysian political party MCA, Chen Fan Chong, for helping him translate his post into Malay from Mandarin.
In doing so, the matter could be resolved.
Also read: South Buona Vista Braised Duck Closing Down On 7 Feb After 55 Years Of Operations
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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