Chong (fourth left) at the Third Mile Market yesterday, meeting some of the hawkers in the area.
KUCHING (Sept 13): The authorities should make careful consideration before issuing blanket orders for market closure in and around the city, said Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen.
He said during this extraordinary time of hardship caused by Covid-19 pandemic, before the authorities issue such a blanket Closure Order on markets for six days, they should give serious consideration to the suffering of the hawkers trading in these markets.
“Livelihood of hundreds, including their family members, is affected by such closure orders.
“The authorities seem to be very trigger-happy in issuing such Close-Market Order. When there are some Covid positive cases, notwithstanding that the others also cover those with negative Covid tests and have no symptoms, the authorities would issue a blanket close-market order.
“This is tantamount to closing down a whole commercial area when some traders or their workers in a few of the shops tested positive for Covid,” he said yesterday.
Chong, who is also Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman, made the comments after visiting the 7th Mile Market and the 3rd Mile Market, to obtain feedback from the hawkers and listen to their predicaments in the aftermath of the Market Closure Order issued by the Padawan Municipal Council (PMC) from Sept 3 to Sept 8 (six days).
He said this was contrary to what happened when some of the council’s employees tested positive as the whole council office was not closed down for six days.
“Only a particular section of the council office was closed and for a much shorter period. If I remember correctly, sometime ago, in the case of MBKS, there was a notice that it only closed for two days.
“Furthermore, such blanket closure order is also contrary to the notion of endemic or ‘living with Covid’ which is the current direction the government is heading towards,” he said.
The Stampin member of Parliament also said though the traders in the council’s markets are tenants of the council and trade at the mercy of the council, the council should not be so haphazard in issuing the Market Closure Orders.
“Everyone can accept the fact that there should be strict SOPs applicable to both the hawkers and the patrons to the markets, for example, only for those vaccinated, normal body temperature, mask-wearing, and others, but the drastic act of closing the whole market when there were only a few infected persons may not be an appropriate act.
“I hope the council can be more prudent and considerate to the suffering of the hawkers in future in dealing with this matter. The council’s every decision has a huge impact on the livelihood of the people, and thus it should be exercised properly and with care and consideration,” he added.