The Malaysian Insider – 1 hour 54 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Penang bans foreign cooks at hawker stalls
The Penang exco has banned foreigners from being employed as cooks at hawker stalls, in a move to preserve the state's food heritage.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the new ruling would be enforced on all roadside hawkers in the state.
Failure to observe the new rule would result in the revoking of their licence, he said.
Lim said hawkers would be given a year's grace period beginning next year.
"The grace period will also give the Penang and Seberang Prai municipal councils time to study and refine the implementation of the new regulation.
"The main idea of this is to safeguard Penang's food heritage and maintain the flavours that are unique to Penang," he said at Komtar after an exco meeting today.
Lim said the regulation, which would also help ensure that the Penang hawker food business would not be taken over by foreigners, would be imposed on all hawkers with stalls by the road, and in council or private food courts in shopping malls.
It would be included as a condition in hawker licenses next year, but restaurants or food outlets with centralised kitchens would not be subjected to the ruling, he said.
"However, the local councils will still allow stall owners to hire foreigners to help handle orders, clean up or prepare ingredients.
"It is just cooking that foreign workers are not allowed to do at hawker stalls," he said.
Lim said the authorities will also issue special stickers to hawkers to display at their stalls to show people that the food is authentically local.
"We hope by taking this measure, we can retain our unique local taste and show visitors the warmth of Penang."
Lim had earlier this year made the proposal that had received mixed reaction from the public. However, most locals, including hawkers, welcomed the idea.
He said during his visits to Singapore, citizens of the republic also praised Penang for making such a proposal.
"They told me they felt that Singapore should have done the same a long time ago.
"Even Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed had agreed to the move," he said.
Local government exco Chow Kon Yeow said the councils conducted a survey on the proposal between July 25 and August 31 this year involving 14,810 people whose responses were recorded in person or online.
He said 55.8% of the respondents were Penangites and the rest were from other states or countries.
"We found that 87.45% of the respondents were in favour of the move, and 86% also agreed that licenses should be revoked if the hawkers fail to comply," he said.
Chow also assured hawkers that no action would be taken against them during the grace period.
Meanwhile, Penang Munipal Council (MPPP) secretary Ang Aing Thye said the councils would study the 'grey areas' like the type of food the hawkers sell before they fully implement the new ruling.
"We will start with what we can easily define first," he said.
Ang also said coffee shop proprietors, who need not apply for hawker licenses for stalls at their premises, should ensure that the food was cooked by locals as well. – October 24, 2014.
