Media Statement by Leslie Ting:
Samarindah Market hawkers were forced to operate in a poorly ventilated market as all the electrical fan were out of order. It was made known that a short circuit involving 2 of the fans within the market caused the malfunction of all the electrical fans. Despite this, the Samarindah Market endured the heat and continued its daily operation. No actions were taken by the local authorities to deal with this issue.
Hawkers then set up a meeting with DAPSY kuching secretary Leslie Ting Xiang Zhi to complaint about the predicament and resentment towards the issue, and was asked for help convey the situation towards the appropriate authorities. Upon receiving the aforementioned complaint, Leslie Ting visited the market to understand the situation better.
In this visit, Leslie Ting was made known of multiple issues that the market was facing. The market was poorly ventilated, poorly lit, unhygienic, presents bad ordour just to name the few. The hawkers said that they have lodge multiple complaints to the local authorities, however, no actions were taken to resolve any of the complaints.
It can be seen that a large electric fan was locked onto an iron column, maintenance have not been carried out accordingly as dust heavily covered the fans. The fan could have been used to address the ventilation issue faced by the market.
At the time of visitation, the environment of the market was very dull as many of its light bulbs were not functioning. Many hawkers ridiculed that ‘to save electricity, the lights were deliberately switched off’. It was also made known that some light bulbs have not been changed even though it was out of order for quite some time. In short, there is a world difference in the environment comparing the market from the brightly lit eateries next door.
Hawkers also complained that the market used to have three cleaning workers that uses a large hose to clean the drains. There is only one cleaning worker who is cleaning and maintaining the hygiene of the whole market. This is very inadequate as the cleanliness of the market is not being taken care of. Unpleasant stench and ordours haunts the market.
On another note, public toilets in the market were also locked at 6pm, causing unnecessary inconvenience to the public within that are.
Leslie Ting emphasises that hawkers in the market contributes heavily to the society by providing all sorts of vegetables, meat and more to the community. Therefore, he urged that relevant parties should pay attention to the hawkers operation environment, maintaining a hygiene, ventilated, bright, and clean market, creating a market environment that would be of beneficial to the community.
Leslie Ting Xiang Zhi
DAPSY kuching secretary
