SANDAKAN: The issue of relocating night market traders to the Bandar Ramai-Ramai Wholesale Market has exposed serious weaknesses in the enforcement and monitoring by the Sandakan Municipal Council (MPS), particularly regarding the citizenship status of traders.
Sandakan Parliamentary Office Coordinator, Tang Szu Ching, emphasised that out of the 132 traders involved, official records show only 83 are citizens eligible for relocation while 40 other non-citizen traders are not eligible.
“This actual situation reveals serious flaws in the monitoring and verification mechanism for traders’ status,” asserted Ching after attending an MPS briefing together with traders, elected representatives, and local leaders at the Sandakan Community Hall on Wednesday.
She questioned how these 40 non-citizen traders were allowed to operate, who approved them, and whether the procedures implemented complied with the law. “MPS is responsible for providing a clear and transparent explanation to the public,” she said.
Ching raised concerns over MPS’s alleged reliance entirely on data from a third-party operator without thorough verification. This failure, she argued, undermines the credibility of the system and is unfair to legitimate local traders.
She also underscored the failure of the third-party operator for not reporting complete and accurate trader information, resulting in a significant discrepancy between records and the actual situation, which she described as misleading the authorities.
Ching expressed appreciation for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (SPRM) officers present conducting inspections, describing their intervention as a necessary step to ensure the relocation process is conducted transparently, fairly, and lawfully.
She hopes MPS takes this weakness seriously, conducts a comprehensive review of its approval system, and ensures similar incidents do not recur to protect the rights of legitimate local traders. – James Leong
Ching (white shirt), attending the MPS briefing at the Sandakan Community Hall on Wednesday.
