Mayor: No willpower to preserve identity

KUALA LUMPUR: Traders in Petaling Street must be serious if they want to preserve the identity of the area.

Mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail (pic) said while the authorities can continue to carry out enforcement actions to weed out foreign stall helpers, locals in the area should also play their part.

“If it was up to me, I would have their licences revoked but if you want to retain the character of the place, it’s all about education and the people there must have some sense of pride to preserve its identity.”

“Previously people complained the area was not tourist friendly as there were foreign helpers in the area who would threaten tourists and they claimed the area did not have a Chinatown character.”

Ahmad Fuad said City Hall may need to meet the stakeholders again address the problem.

“The hawkers association and had approached us telling us that people were afraid to come to the area as they would often be harassed.”

The mayor said there were two reasons the problem was not ending and apart from the low wages, it was also about traders’ will to hire locals to help them at their stalls.

“Perhaps they should offer higher salaries to attract locals to work in the area.”

“We can continue to take action against errant traders, but in the long term, the will power lies with the traders. They have to tell us whether we should revoke their licences if they are caught employing foreigners,” Ahmad Fuad said