ALTHOUGH an overwhelming number of Malaysians have abided by the country’s mask mandate when outside, the situation in other countries has been mixed.
For instance, America has long seen an increased resistance towards wearing masks by the so-called “anti-mask” and anti-vaccine crowd, while recently, the selfish mentality has also seeped up north, with Canadian anti-maskers protesting against wearing masks by being a public nuisances.
As such, when this happens in Malaysia, as rare as it may be, the incident quickly becomes national news.
On Friday (Feb 4), videos of a man causing an altercation in Ipoh over the compulsory mask mandate went viral.
After the man was denied service at a restaurant for refusing to wear a mask, he was ushered out.
In a moment of peak entitlement and foolishness, the man returned armed with a stick, and began smashing valuable equipment in the restaurant.
Perhaps he never received the memo on how Malaysians have a lynch mob mentality, because as he was returning to his car following his trail of destruction, the owner of the restaurant chased after him and the duo began to scuffle.
Seeing the owner being overpowered, members of the public sprang into action to deliver the Malaysian brand of mob justice.
You can watch pictures and a video of the incident here.
It’s not clear which of the crowd were members of the public or restaurant staff, but there was a lot of them, including one individual who came running while holding a meat cleaver.
After enduring the wrath of the crowd (which included being struck by his own weapon), the man was left by the side of the road, presumably while the crowd waited for the police.
The next day, Ipoh district police chief Yahaya Hassan explained that the man had been placed in remand until Feb 8 for causing hurt and mischief.
Yahaya also advised the public not to take the law into their own hands.
