A woman took to social media to recount an unpleasant experience after she encountered difficulties while trying to use her Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) aid at a local store.
According to her post, when she proceeded to pay using SARA, the cashier immediately told her that the MyKad scanner was “broken”, meaning the aid could not be used.
‘Is it really broken?’
Feeling suspicious, she asked the cashier again to confirm. However, the worker’s dismissive tone only made her more frustrated.
I asked her again, ‘Is it really broken?’, and she replied with a sour face, ‘Yes, didn’t you hear?’”
She then told the cashier that if she were an enforcement officer, the machine would probably “work” again.
To her surprise, the cashier then took out the device — and it worked perfectly.
“Suddenly she pulled out the scanner and said ‘Oh, can scan already.’ Don’t try to fool me,” the woman fumed.
She stressed that she never pretended to be an enforcement officer, but merely asked a rhetorical question to gauge whether the machine was actually faulty or if the cashier was being dishonest.
She also noted she was aware of Section 170 of the Penal Code, which prohibits impersonating a public officer.
Netizens’ comments
Her experience quickly drew attention, with many Malaysians sharing similar encounters, accusing some store employees of deliberately avoiding MyKad scans because they find the process troublesome.
‘Yeah sis, last month I also wanted to use my IC because I didn’t know what else to finish the balance on, so I kept buying things from the same shop and usually just bought drinks or bread. Then one day when I wanted to use my IC again, they said, ‘This drink cannot be bought with IC.’
So I told them, ‘Eh, yesterday I bought the exact same drink using IC and it was fine.’
The cashier immediately gave me a side-eye, kept quiet, looked down and scanned it without saying anything. Maybe embarrassed or scared after being caught, but why are they like this? So annoying.’
‘I wouldn’t dare say something like that, but I could just nod, slowly dial a number while walking out and pretend to make a call, saying there’s another shop here claiming their IC machine is ‘broken’ and maybe the team should come and check it — that’s how you do a spot-check.’
