The Life Jacket Joke

A growing obesity epidemic amongst Malays will manifest itself to be a major problem for the community very soon if left unchecked. It is time we pay as much attention to ‘Tayib’ as much as we pay attention to ‘Halal’.

When I was in the army, my bunk mates passed around the following joke:

Q: What’s the similarity between a Malay woman and a life jacket?

A: Break their seals and they grow twice the size.

The joke may be crude indeed, even if it’s meant to be passed around as humorous chatter between soldiers looking for a way to past the night. But unfortunately, the stereotype does hold some element of truth to it.

Malay women in this part of the world are after all, famous for putting on lots of weight once they get married. This anomaly lies in stark contrast to ethnic Chinese wives who persistently please their husbands with their figures way into their twilight years. Hence came about the comparison of Malay women to life jackets.

Perhaps the problem lies in our diet. Perhaps too, the bane lies in our lifestyle. Either way, obesity is an epidemic that is threatening to manifest itself as a major problem very soon if our community refuses to sober up to it.

Today, there is no need to wait till “after the seal is broken” as the joke goes. Obese Malays of odd shapes and sizes from all age groups are now a common feature of the local landscape.

In the latest Singapore National Health Survey by the Ministry of Health, the prevalence of obesity was most amongst Malays at 19.1% followed by the Indians at 13.4%. The Chinese were far of the mark at only 4.2%.

Our men folk are not totally blameless either. Obesity amongst Malay males accelerated the fastest amongst all ethnic groups. Between 1998 and 2004 our obesity rate grew at an astounding 47%. This means that not only are our Malays the fattest in the land, but we are also growing obese faster than any other ethnic group – doubling approximately once every 10 years.

Malaysians are not spared from this phenomenon either.



In a World Health Organisation Ranking, Malaysians have scored themselves to be the fattest people in South East Asia. The country’s obesity rate also exceeds those of developed nations like France and Germany. The number of fat people in the nation has more than doubled over the last 10 years – on par with the obesity growth of Malays in Singapore.

This obesity epidemic will unravel a host of challenges for the Malay community. Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart complications will be the modern plague of our people. These calamities will not only be bogging down the community socially, but more importantly financially as well.

Treatment for chronic bouts of heart disease, diabetes and other obesity related conditions often run in the thousands of dollars every year. It is something that a lot of our Malay families can ill-afford to, given the socio-economic standing of our people.

If we allow the obesity problem to persist without intervention, it will not be long before the Malays qualify themselves as the most medically liable community in the country – taking up a disproportionate amount of medical and hospitalisation subsidies from the taxpayer. This is certainly far from Muhammad’s vision of Muslims setting themselves as an example for all mankind.

But how did we become the fattest people in the first place? Do we not after all, watch very carefully what we eat? We certainly are very careful when scrutinizing food labels, looking out for dubious ingredients and making sure that everything in our food is ‘Halal’?

A Muslim’s dietary restrictions comes from a commandment in the Quran in the form of Verse 168 from Surah-Al Baqarah (Chapter 1)



Which means “Oh you people, eat of what is on earth that is ‘Halalan Tayiban’ (lawful AND good)”.

Strangely while Muslims have been diligent in obeying the first, (lawful) they have largely ignored the second portion of this commandment (good).

While we have been careful to ensure that our food additives are from plants and animals that have been properly slaughtered, we cared much less about the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol that is swimming in our dishes.

While we have scrutinised our food to ensure that they do not contain alcohol or ingredients that are derived from pork, we have allowed our food to turn us into the most obese and medically problematic people in the country.

The status quo cannot remain. We may already be paying lots of attention to the various social problems that our community is facing. Now we need to pay equal, if not more, attention to problems that are on the horizon. These include the emerging cataclysms of Malay obesity and financial delinquency. As Muslims, we must realise that our bodies have been entrusted to us to carry out His work and do good to mankind. There is a dire need to change our diet and lifestyle.

It is good that most of our children have been trained to read food labels and look out only for ‘Halal’ ingredients. All we need to do now is to elevate this awareness up a notch to encompass the Islamic concept of eating not only that which is lawful, but also good for the body and the mind. This is the true essence of ‘Halalan Tayiban’ in Al-Baqarah Verse 168.

Malays must wise up to habits like calorie counting and raise their awareness towards substances like saturated fat, trans-fat and artificial sweetening compounds – plenty of which are infesting a lot of our foods.

There also has to be more emphasis on physical activity and exercise. When I make my runs at East Coast Park, I cannot help but notice that the fellow runners are predominantly Chinese and occasionally Indian. The Malay families are by the side of the beach barbequing chicken wings. Enough said.

And lastly there has to be a continued effort by the grassroots and mosques to diversify into more activities that aim to educate our community on the state of our health. These are the beacons at which Muslims congregate at least once a week on Fridays and remain the most efficient medium in which the message can be disseminated.

Perhaps one day when these finally happen, the life jacket joke will finally deflate.