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Pricey water bottles stir up netizens’ ire

Mark Mathen Victor
The Evian brand of mineral water is too expensive even for middle income Malaysians. – @MalaysiaPMO/TwitterThe Evian brand of mineral water is too expensive even for middle income Malaysians. – @MalaysiaPMO/Twitter

LAST week, government officials somehow managed to irk Malaysians twice over the same issue.

On Monday (Jan 31), the Prime Minister’s Office shared a slickly-produced video on its Twitter page announcing its decision to drop the ceiling price of chicken ... by 20 sen.

If the measly price reduction wasn’t morbidly funny enough, during the video, netizens noticed that while at the meeting table, the officials were being served Evian water bottles to drink.

$!A screenshot from the controversial video, showing the Evian water bottles displayed on the tables. – @MalaysiaPMO/Twitter
A screenshot from the controversial video, showing the Evian water bottles displayed on the tables. – @MalaysiaPMO/Twitter

Though the irony of serving the expensive Evian during a meeting about the rising cost of living appeared lost on those in the picture, it wasn’t lost on Malaysian netizens, causing “Evian” to immediately trend on Twitter.

“National Action Council on Cost of Living. Serving Evian mineral water at RM8 per bottle. Bloody hypocrites,” said one Twitter user.

Then on Thursday (Feb 3), pictures taken during another meeting were posted on Bernama’s Twitter account, which also went viral and drew the ire of netizens.

$!A photo of the second meeting with the water bottles covered by white cloth (in the red circle). – @bernamadotcom/Twitter
A photo of the second meeting with the water bottles covered by white cloth (in the red circle). – @bernamadotcom/Twitter

As though aware of Monday’s furore, the water bottles in the latest meeting had their labels covered by some sort of white fabric.

However, this apparent attempt at ‘damage control’ appeared to have had the opposite effect. One of the top replies on Twitter asked sarcastically whether the Evian water bottle stock had run out.