Association tells Wee not to interfere - The Star

April 21, 2008 by Yip Yoke Teng

Kuala Lumpur Hawkers and Petty Traders Association vice-president Datuk Ang Say Tee has advised Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong to stay out of the issue of foreign workers in Petaling Street.

Ang said Wee should not create more problems as they were already working on the issue of the area’s foreign workers with Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun and City Hall.

Petaling Street is packed with both licensed and unlicensed foreign workers. Operators hire foreign workers to man their stalls but have been urged to limit the number to conserve Chinatown's image.

Unlicensed foreigners also operate a number of stalls, believed to belong to a syndicate, affecting the business of others while messing up the place.


No choice: Traders are forced to hire foreign labour as the locals do not want to work in Petaling Street.

Ang said Chinatown had an even more serious problem now as Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan said City Hall would be forced to take aggressive action following Wee’s remarks, even though they were having talks with the association to come out with a better solution.

“Wee was the Bukit Bintang MP more than 10 years ago but he did not care about us, because, according to him, he was someone who dealt with national issues only, not petty matters like hawkers’ problems,” Ang said.

He added that the issue of foreign workers was national one and could not be solved within a week or a month.

He said both parties should not oppose for the sake of opposing because that would only bring harm to the people and the country.

“You quarrel, we have trouble,” was also the general sentiment of operators at Chinatown when they heard that City Hall would take action against the foreign workers there.

“They are fighting between themselves but they are victimising us. They should tolerate each other for the benefit of the people,” a trader, who wanted to be known as Fen said.

She admitted that illegal foreign workers were a nuisance but urged the authorities to refrain from taking harsh action, as that would scare tourists away.

Another trader, Loke, said their businesses would be further affected if City Hall carried out harsh enforcement.

“However, we need City Hall to take action against the illegal foreign workers who open stalls every evening from 2pm till late night, blocking access to our stalls,” he said.

“At the same time, please leave the legitimate workers alone.

“We have no choice but to hire foreign workers because locals do not want to work here,” he said.

When contacted, Fong said no one should oppose for the sake of opposing because they were here to solve problems rationally.

He said City Hall could install CCTV cameras to control the situation, instead of sending enforcement officers regularly as that would tarnish the image of the tourist destination.

“We want City Hall to clamp down on the illegal traders, but allow more time for operators to adjust to employing a smaller number of licensed foreign workers.

“However, many of the past enforcement operations dealt with only the licensed ones, as the unlicensed ones are nowhere to be seen during raids as they always seemed have been tipped off before they happen,” he said.