Hawkers

While I was exhausted after conducting interviewing the 171 hawkers applying for the Chinese New Year temporary license last Tuesday, it was a fruitful and meaningful learning experience. Although it is not easy to allocate 109 permits available to all of them, the panelist is doing the best to pre-qualify the deserving applicants. It is a worthy cause as every one is given an equal opportunity for representation, hence the right to be selected. The objectives are pretty clear, to allow trustworthy hawkers to trade and to enhance the attraction of CNY stalls.

While the session saw multiple approaches from the interviewees to convince the panelists, there are unhealthy gestures involving past year license holders. Some past year license holders with the assumption of "renewing" the license annually and automatically were having the attitude of lacking respect and taken things for granted. The new applicants told panelists about their economy hardship and many of them said they have been trading there years without license. There are instances of soliciting sympathy through helpless gestures and demanding for license based on past record and experience.

One thing for sure is 100% of them expressed their willingness to comply with the laws and regulations during the interview session. A self declaration that needs verification as complaints on traffic congestion, littering, obstruction, nuisance, cleanliness are normal after the stalls start operation. Perhaps it is time to attach some penalty strings to counter check these kind of commitment so that it can be materialised and enforceable.

As many are pessimistic about economic outlook for year 2009, informal sector as the easy entrance, low requirement for skills and capital is expected with the high influx of newcomers. MBPJ is definitely facing tremendous pressure on providing trading premises, regulating the unlicensed and licenced hawkers, tidying the designated or illegal trading premises and collecting the tax. Uncontrolled situation will lead to the deteriorating living environment for PJ. Having said this, it is a difficult task depending on MBPJ alone as hawkers are very mobile. Perhaps it is time to incorporate other stakeholders such as residents and businesses in the development process for informal sector. Being there within the trading premises 24 hours, the residents have the right to demand for a quality living environment, and as such have the responsibility to involve in the development process. As consumers, they can demand the hawkers to do good and to improve better provided that some authorities are delegated to the residents for helping MBPJ to regulate the informal sector. For example, invited to judge the conduct of hawkers. Opinions of the stakeholders have to be given priority and serious consideration. Concurrently, the capacity of hawkers towards business ethics, social responsibility and environmental sustainability has to be improved.

Until then, challenges for informal sector is a never ending story. The catch, release, run and hide between authority and hawkers will remain.