Malaysian Association of Malay Hawkers and Small Businessmen, which represents 200,000 traders, said Kuantan was the first local authority to allow them to operate on Jan 23.
“Now, DBKL is awaiting approval from the National Security Council to give us the go-ahead. If the SOPs (standard operating procedures) are approved, we will be allowed to operate,” the association’s secretary-general, Mohamed Zamri Mohammed told FMT.
The second movement control order (MCO 2.0) ends on Feb 4 and the government is expected to make an announcement if it will be extended or if it will be replaced with a conditional MCO.
Zamri said they hoped to start trading from Feb 5 onwards as traders could earn some money during the Chinese New Year season. Chinese New Year is on Feb 12.
He said business had just started to pick up in June last year but dropped again after the Sabah polls in September.
“Our business suffered by 70% after cases started going up in September till December. Since MCO 2.0 started (on Jan 13) our business is back to zero,” he added.
He said with proper SOPs, all states should allow pasar malam to operate or more will be closing their businesses. “Pasar malam traders do not do any other side business. They have no other means of survival,” he said.
Some of the SOPs given by DBKL to the traders are to operate on alternate days, enforcement officers placed to ensure SOPs are followed, separate entry and exits, temperature checks at entry points, face masks worn at all times, and only two family members allowed into the market area.
Other SOPs include only takeaways being allowed and operation hours limited to between 4pm and 10pm.
Zamri said the traders are familiar with the SOPs as they were almost the same as when the first MCO was implemented.
Last week, Putrajaya announced restaurants, food stalls and any establishments selling food items would be allowed to operate until 10pm effective tomorrow. However, dine-in is still not allowed.
This comes after public complaints on the opening times of 6am to 8pm.
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