[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: The Federal Territories ministry has been urged to reconsider its directive that liquor-serving pubs and food venues be closed during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) period.
Food and beverage chain operator Ivy Hew said police authorities should only punish those who mocked the CMCO and lost the law-abiding stores.
“It is unfair to make a general decision ordering all pubs and food establishments serving alcoholic beverages to close,” he said.
Earlier today, Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa said she had received complaints from the public that operators were not practicing social distancing rules within their facilities.
“A friend of mine, who is not a Muslim, said that customers were sitting and hanging out like normal days at the store,” he added.
Annuar said the ministry and agencies under the FT security working committee had decided to put liquor-serving bars and food stores on the “negative list.”
“This means that they cannot operate during the CMCO period,” he said today in his Facebook video.
Many companies, including pubs, started operating again yesterday when the CMCO went into effect. These outlets had been closed since the closing began on March 18.
Hew said these grocery stores would suffer more losses because they would have ordered from their meat and vegetable suppliers for their restaurants.
“These are perishable items and cannot be stored for a long time,” he said, adding that the minister should reconsider his decision.
However, Kent Chua, who manages 20 food outlets across the country, including in Kuala Lumpur, said he agreed with Annuar’s decision, as the operators were not prepared to entertain customers in the ” new normal environment. “
“We have had little time to familiarize ourselves with the new standard operating procedures and to train our staff to deal with customers.”
False or not? Check out our fast fake news destroyer here.
