Corruption and social ills

17 march 2013. Making ends meet is never an easy thing for the middle and lower income group. This plight is special so, if one is a hawker doing business at pasar malam (night market). In case you wonder what is Pasar malam, Pasar malam is an open air night market in Malaysia.

At the night market, there are lots of offering just like the morning wet market. For the case of wet market in the morning, usually these markets are held in a special designated area in places or districts. But for the pasar malam, it is usually held at designated roadside, in a special day of each week, the roads will be closed for traffic in the evening and hawkers are allow to set up stalls to sell by the roadside.

This has evolved into a unique culture you can find with ease in Malaysia. You can find this practise even in city center like Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

Eventhough this is a good practise that allow the lower income to generate more revenue, care and enforcement is needed so that unscrupulous hawkers will not take advantages until it intrude the basic rights of those living there.

For instance, there aren't any designated signboard to let the public know the time and days designated for pasar malam. This can cause frustration to the traders who claim that people parked their vehicle at designated spot thus blocking their reserved space for stall. This may happened when an outsider not living in that area come visiting or simply by the act of few low civic minded people.

In retaliation, unconsiderate hawkers block parking lots as early as 3.30pm, causing inconveniences to other. While pasar malam is allowed only after 5.00pm, enforcement should be taken when blocking of parking spaces is done before the allowed pasar malam time. In contrary, enforcement should also be take, which include fine tickets and towing, if any vehicle are found to have parked their vehicle in roads designated for pasar malam.

Municiple council officers should be the rightful party to ensure fairness for the petty traders and people living there and should not adopt a statue quo attitude.