Some 500 hawkers and traders of the Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman (TAR) night market have decided not to resume their business just yet although they have been given the greenlight to do so starting June 15 under the recovery movement control order.
Lorong TAR Hawkers and Traders Association chairman Azkhalim Suradi said the set standard operating procedures (SOPs) are too restrictive and unreasonable for a night market operation.
For instance, the SOPs include social distancing of 1.5m between each eight-square-meter stalls, the barring of children aged below 13 while those aged 60 and above are not allowed to visit the night market.
Most night markets are not suitable to be cordoned due to limited space and practising social distancing (for the stalls) will cause most hawkers and traders to be left out due to the limited number of booths allowed.
It is also quite perplexing that the government has allowed night market operations to resume while entertainment outlets and number forecast operators remain shut.
Typically, traders at a night market set up stalls on existing roads, which can be quite narrow. It would be challenging for patrons to navigate along the stalls without being in close proximity with other patrons.
If a certain stall attracts many patrons, they are probably required to queue up with a ‘safe’ distance from each other. Wouldn’t this be challenging given the limited space?
Also, with the requirement of 1.5m between each eight-square-meter stalls, the night market would have to be extended in terms of the length in order to accommodate the existing traders.
If the allowable space to operate is not extended, how does one decide who can set up a stall?
Since children below 13 and those aged above 60 are not allowed to patronise the night market, who will be stationed to verify the age of the patrons, and take the temperature and details of the patrons?
Who bears the cost if the place needs to be cordoned and employ dedicated personnel to do the necessary checks at the entry point?
Surely, it is a lot easier to allow entertainment centres to resume operations as they operate within confined spaces and SOPs can be adhered to.
This applies to theme parks, karaoke centres, casinos and cinemas as the operators can check temperatures, sanitise and obtain details of the patrons just like how shopping malls do.
Likewise, for number forecast operators (NFOs), namely Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd, Magnum Bhd and Pan Malaysian Pools Sdn Bhd (Da Ma Cai), they are normally operating out of a shop lot. Social distancing and tracking can be done like any other grocery shops or your retail shops. So why the double standard?
The government stands to lose millions in terms of tax with casinos, NFOs and other entertainment outlets not operating.
For instance, analysts have estimated that NFOs’ earnings will fall by 12% to 13% during the closure for 42 days. Now that this period has continued to almost three months, the earnings could only drop further.
The government wants to help businesses ease back into the economy and it doesn’t help that certain segments are still unable to restart their businesses. Casino operators such as Genting employ a huge workforce.
Further delay could lead to not only loss of revenue for the government, but also higher unemployment rate which is expected to reach 5% this year.
The government has to wise up in making decisions on which businesses can resume operations. It is better to allow all businesses to resume but with strict SOPs in place. It is important to ensure compliance as we do not want another wave of outbreak which will drag the economy further. – June 17, 2020
