Wong’s Fire Pub & Lounge, which has been closed since the MCO last year, has been collecting dust although he continues to pay rent.
Kenneth Khoo
MIRI: Bar and pub owners here are appealing to the authorities to find ways to help them get back on their feet as they have not been operating for almost a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unlike their counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia who are back in business with standard operating procedures (SOP) in place, they have not been allowed to operate since the first Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced in March last year.
They had a short respite when they were allowed to re-open in August last year but in October they were ordered shut again and remained closed since.
What makes their ordeal even harder to accept is that the authorities have allowed bistros in the state to stay open although the pub and bar owners believe the nature of business of bistros is similar to theirs.
Kenneth Khoo, a spokesman of a newly formed Association of Bistros, Cafes, Pubs & Karaoke, Miri (ABCOM), said many pub and lounge owners are struggling to stay afloat.
“We have been complying all this while and we’ve been quiet most of the time. Of course occasionally we meet with MPs or YBs related to the SDMC (Sarawak Disaster Management Committee), but we have been silent almost the whole year and we can’t sustain this any longer. We are still paying rental although we have to close for almost 11 months now.
“When we were allowed to open briefly, we did so from September to October. It took almost two weeks for the business to slightly improve. Initially people were still reluctant (to come). We had all the SOPs (standard operating procedure) in place, we rearranged the tables to ensure social distancing, we provided scanning of the QR code and so on.
“Word spread and people started accepting and feeling safe coming to our outlets. But just when we thought business was getting back to normal, we had to close down again and everything went back to square one,” he told The Borneo Post.
Khoo, who owns The New Island Dreams pub here, said when the MCO was enforced in March last year, he and several others came together to form ABCOM to address issues faced by them in Miri.
“We (association) do not have any chairman at the moment but only a spokesperson. We currently have 15 members,” he said.
While bistros can, pubs can’t
Peterus Parren Mering
With the many pub and lounge businesses badly affected, Khoo urged the government and the authorities to bring in recovery plans for industries that are still prohibited from operating during the pandemic.
“I would like to suggest to SDMC, it’s about time they start thinking out of the box to allow industries that were initially prohibited from operating during MCO or CMCO to resume their operation.
“There’s a fine line between bistros and pubs, that you can put two outlets which look and operate similarly, yet one could be operating under a bistro licence and another under pub licence. Both are basically the same nature of business, so why are pubs not allowed to operate while bistros can.
“We want to maintain our licence as a pub because later on down the line, we would like to continue with live music and all that, so that we can get back to a normal way of life.
“We believe that once things get back to normal, people will be eager for things such as live music, deejays and all that. Things may not be as normal as before March 2020, but at least a semblance of the normal way of life,” he said.
Khoo pointed out that so far he has not heard of any Covid-19 cluster escalating from bistros and cafes.
“This means that even with many bistros open and operating with the same modus operandi as a bar, they are actually doing their best and succeeding in protecting the health and safety of their customers.
“So we don’t see any reason for this so called restrictions on pubs and entertainment centres to be extended any further,” he said, adding that the authorities should come up with a timeline and not simply extend the restriction every two weeks.
“There has to be a cut off point somewhere. It is unfair for us to be left in the dark like this. Of course we know right now it is not the right time to open as we are still in a red zone,” he said.
The Health Ministry categorises districts with no Covid-19 cases as green zones; while those with one to 20 cases over a two-week period as yellow zones, 21 to 40 as orange and 41 and above as red.
Last week, karaoke centres, cinemas, massage centres, spas and reflexology centres in green or yellow zones in Sarawak were allowed to reopen with standard operating procedures issued by the state’s Ministry of Local Government and Housing.
Holding on to dreams
Khoo said financially, he should have let go of the pub business long ago after the restrictions started, but then he got to thinking about his hard work.
“I’ve put so much effort into the business and Island Dreams have been around for almost 14 years.
“So for now, I’ll just hang in there for a few more months and see what happens. For many of us, this is not just a business, but also a passion.
“I’m fortunate that I have other business to sustain my pub at the moment but even then, I don’t know how long I can last.
“I can’t say the same about other pub owners. I know some of them are very reliant on their pub business as it is their only source of income,” he said.
Meanwhile, another pub owner, Peterus Parren Mering said not being able to operate his bar has been a big burden for him as he still has to sustain the premises and pay the annual entertainment licence.
“It’s quite unfair for us, because even though we are not open we are still pressured to pay our entertainment licence which is among the more expensive licences compared to other businesses.
“In December, I paid about RM3,000 plus for my licence even though my bar was not open. In that sense, there is no help and consideration from the local authority and councils,” said the owner of Barambar.
Peterus had also lost all of his staff as he could not keep them employed when the business is not operating. While he suffered loss of business, his six employees lost their source of income.
“All my six staff are gone. They also lost their source of income and had to look for other jobs. My deejay had a hard time looking for jobs because other places are also not in business and not hiring,” he said.
Dilemma in letting go
Peterus said people have also asked him whether he is going to just give up on his bar since it has not opened in the last one year.
“A lot of people asked me whether I should give up on the business, and I did also consider giving it up. But this bar business is somewhat of a sentimental value for me.
“Of course it would not be easy for me to give up. I’ve been doing this for the last eight years. So for me to shut down would mean that the past eight years of my effort gone just like that.
“At the same time, I cannot sell the business because we are not allowed to operate, so even if there’s an interested buyer to come and pay me over, I could not sell the business as right now, it completely has no value in itself. This is the dilemma,” he said, adding that after being closed too long, many things in the bar have also started to deteriorate.
Because of that, Peterus said he will hold on to the business a bit longer with the hope that the bar can reopen soon.
“What I’m trying to say is, they (the authority) should come out with alternatives for us and not just let us rot away like this.
“Furthermore, there are also other similar businesses going under the license of bistros and what not, but they are allowed to open.
“Why is it that entertainment outlets are not allowed when the business model is about the same.
“I believe that we also should be allowed to open for business as long as we follow all the SOP, that is fair for everyone.
Paul Wong
“We also have family to support even though I shut down business. There’s also electricity bills to pay.
“There could be more than one reason why the government is not paying much attention to us, but I think somebody somewhere should start doing something or else the situation will get worse,” he said further.
Peterus added that he is fortunate at the moment that he have other business to sustain his bar, but if the situation prolong, he will eventually have to shut down for good
“Bistro have similar setting with pub as well as bar and are allowed to operate, but not us. I don’t want to speculate on that, but I just want the government to call some attention to this.
“They (authority) might have reason (to allow bistro), but at least please be clear about it. Let us know what the boundaries are between a bistro and bar or the difference between a karaoke joint and a family karaoke centre, and things like that,” he said.
Complying with red zone rules
Owner of Fire Pub & Lounge, Paul Wong, meanwhile, urged the authorities to come out with a clear notice or guideline on why they are still not allowed to operate their business while other similar outlets like bistros are allowed.
“This is unfair to us. Our difference is only in what is written in our license, but the nature of business is the same. In this case we should also be allowed to operate just like them. We also want to ‘cari makan’ (earn income),” he stressed.
Wong added that he and several other pub owners have met up with local leaders as well as representatives of the council but until now there is still no solution or alternative offered to them.
“We pub owners pay about RM3,700 plus for our license fee, but bistros only pay around RM1,700. Our nature of business is very similar, so we feel it is unfair that they are allowed to operate but not us,” he said.
Wong said that his pub’s landlord could only offer him a RM300 discount out of the RM1500 rental fee and he still had to fork out a lot of money to hold on to the premises, even when there is no business.
“The landlord said we can pay later, but with no business coming in the amount will pile up and become too much to afford.
“I do not have any other business. I’m just struggling to stay afloat with whatever money I have left from when my pub was in business. Since the lock-down (March) last year, I only managed to open for two and a half months which was from August 15 to October 28.
“Some people told me to just follow Peninsular Malaysia and just open for business while strictly adhering to the SOP, but who dares to come over. Everyone is afraid of getting fined.
“Even so, now Miri is a red zone and I don’t want to risk it. It is not worth it because I want to keep my customers and myself safe.
“I also have to think about my family at home.
“What we want now is for the government to help us a little bit so that we can operate soon. We also don’t want to open now when Miri is still a red zone, this part we understand. But they (authority) are only helping the bistros now. In that case, might as well let us all change our license to bistro to be fair to all of us,” he lamented.
At the moment Wong is not planning to give up his pub business and hope the authorities could offer solutions to problems faced by all pub and lounge owners here.
“My business is just a small one, but I do have a lot of regular customers who have been supporting me all this while.
“Some customers told me to just open my premises for four to five of them to come and play pool. But in actual fact, nobody dares to come even if I open, because of the hefty fine,” Wong said.
The federal government recently raised the compound on Covid-19 SOP violation from RM1,000 to RM10,000.
However, it had drawn up guidelines in determining the compound amount according to violation and gave discounts of 50 per cent or 25 per cent if the compounds were settled within a stipulated period.
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