KUALA LUMPUR: Traders’ associations are planning to take their displeasure with the Federal Territories Ministry and City Hall to the attention of the Prime Minister in their effort to retain the location of Ramadan baazar at Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman (TAR).
Kuala Lumpur Bumiputra Traders and Hawkers Association vice president Datuk Muhamad Baba Kutty said the members would bide their time over the decision to have the bazaar scheduled to be at Jalan Raja, relocated where they have been for over 20 years.
He said if City Hall did not meet their demands, at least a few days before Ramadan, they would be forced to take their protest to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“If they refuse to budge by then, they must be prepared for the consequences because we will ask PM to intervene,” he told the New Straits Times here today.
Baba said apart from presenting a memorandum to the prime minister, the traders would also trade illegally on the streets.
He had earlier said that if City Hall did not budge, it would intensify friction between traders and enforcement officers on the ground that could lead to unpleasant situations.
“Most of the hawkers are from the B40 group and they have been bottling their anger because they feel victimised,” he said, adding the traders would likely hold a demonstration to voice their dissatisfaction.
He said while the association represented 10,000 members, there were some 60,000 petty traders in the city who would take part in the protest. The association is under the umbrella of a parent petty traders organisation, the Malaysian Federation of Traders and Hawkers’ Association.
Last week, Baba joined more than 300 traders in Titiwangsa indoor stadium to protest the relocation which, they claimed, City Hall had resorted to as a means to exit their squabbles with Jalan TAR traders over the closure of the thoroughfare.
They also demanded that City Hall reinstate them as the rightful authority to manage the bazaar and allocate lots, instead of adopting the online system of registration.
In a response to the protest, Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad said that only five out of the 55 bazaar locations would be managed by DBKL, namely Jalan Raja, Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium, Jalan Telawi, Taman Sri Rampai and Taman Dato Senu.
The remaining 50 locations would be managed by the associations.
However, while City Hall stressed that registration for the lots would remain to be fully online.
Khalid also said DBKL was not trying to eliminate the associations by not giving them the same allocations based on previous quotas.