THE BAD AND UGLY KK CENTRAL MARKET?

KEEN… Dr. Hiew and Edward chat with the hawkers at KK Central Market.

By: DAP MEDIA

KOTA KINABALU Member of Parliament Dr. Hiew King Cheu on last Sunday visited the Kota Kinabalu Central Market with Sabah DAP Vice chairman Edward Ewol Mujie, party members Allen Chieng and Henry Shim. This is his scheduled visit to the central market to see to the various problems arising to the people here.

They had a discussion with the Chairman of the Hawkers association of the KK central market Mr.Johnny Fung to learn more about the problems in the market faced by the hawkers and later took a walk about to chat with the hawkers there.

The main complaints are still being focused on the poor business nature of the central market basically due to lack of customers and tourists. The hawkers are facing some business being taken away by foreigners who are selling illegally around the market.

The 1st floor stalls where they sell dress wear, shoes, handbags and other items are facing with real bad business turn over, and sometimes they can’t even sell a pair of trousers in a day. They still have to pay rental to DBKK at RM 90 per month, and some have to use and pay or two cubicles to stall their goods. Their businesses are at a loss and it is getting harder. They said they don’t know what will come next.

The pork market complained about there is concrete junk falling off the ceiling, and there are similar sign in other part of the market. This needed urgent attention to patch up or repair.

This is no big job, but it will be dangerous if pieces of concrete dropped on to the head of the people there. The whole pork market needed a thorough scrap down and repainting work, and some corners we see patches of fungus and dirty stain all over.

UGLY….The bad and ugly condition at the KK centre market.

The drains are not properly covered with covers and big rats can easily get in and out. There is also the lack of lighting and fans in the markets. The overhead pipes from the 1st floor are leaking to the stalls below.

Some hawkers suggested that the stalls here are indeed needed upgrading and renewed because these were made during the early days in the mid 70’s. It is untidy, dirty, unsightly, inconvenience and unsecured. They would prefer some new stalls with upper level lockable cabinets for storage purpose. At the same time, the stalls have to be redesigned and arranged in such a manner to ease the flow of people and customers.

Dr. Hiew said in order to give the KK central market a better business environment, it is the job for the DBKK and it is essential to create a good market environment for the public to buy their daily needs of food supply and wears from the market, and this is especially so for the middle and low income groups. He said he will discuss with the City Hall on these matters prevailing and seek solution to improve the various situations in the KK central market.

What we need is to attract more people to visit our KK central market, especially the many tourists, but first we must tidy up and upgrade our market environment and the car parks there.