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Many Malaysians with liquidity problems have flocked to pawn shops, which were allowed to reopen last week when the country began easing its movement restrictions.
Long lines were seen outside of pawn shops in Selangor, Johor, Melaka and other states as people pawned their jewelry for cash or renewed pawn tickets.
Many Malaysians have been struggling with financial difficulties after being suddenly unable to work or having lost their jobs due to the Movement Control Order (MCO), particularly low-income groups, self-employed and daily wage earners.
David Yew, manager of a pawn shop in the Kepong suburb of Kuala Lumpur, said that since the store reopened there have been “too many” customers, adding that they were of all races.
“We had 140 clients today. Most of them pawned their gold for cash. They ran out of money during the MCO and had no food,” he said.
“I cannot help much, the government should help them. If the government aid is RM600 (S $ 195) for a family and you have a baby, it is not enough.”
Staff at another pawn shop in the Sri Rampai suburb of Kuala Lumpur said they were “too busy” to speak. “We had more than 100 customers yesterday and today,” said a store employee.
Malaysia Pawn Brokers Association President Tan Ho Keng said that most people went to pawn shops to renew or redeem their pawn tickets.
“There are a lot of people queuing outside the stores due to the fact that we haven’t been open for 11/2 months,” The Star was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
He urged the government to introduce the use of digital transactions for pawn shops to reduce physical contact.
Last month, Tan had asked the government to allow pawn shops to reopen after receiving many inquiries from customers.
He said that pawn shops play a vital role in helping society, and particularly low-income groups, “to obtain funds to buy necessities during this difficult period facing the country.”
Malaysia began to relax its coronavirus control measures, allowing some companies to reopen since last Monday, citing economic losses of RM63 billion since the MCO went into effect on March 18.
The government has estimated that some 520,000 Malaysians have lost their jobs in the first seven weeks of movement restrictions.
In late March, the government had announced it would grant monetary assistance to those eligible, but former human resources minister M. Kulasegaran asked if the aid had reached the needy.
“In Ipoh, I saw many people going to pawn shops, placing their jewelry for cash … Has the government’s financial aid reached the people?” He tweeted on Monday.
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520k
Number of Malaysians who have lost their jobs in the first seven weeks of fighting the movement.
Facebook user Nurhani Marzuki said she was one of the people who had gone to a pawn shop.
Praise God, as long as I can handle things myself, I will handle it myself … avoid borrowing and begging, “she said.
Malaysia has seen a decline in new coronavirus infections in recent days.
Yesterday, it reported 54 new cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,589 cases.
The Health Ministry said there was a new death, bringing the death toll to 108.
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