KUCHING: Coffeeshop operators should reconsider their appeal to the government to allow ‘one table, one diner’ proposal for operating during the movement control order (MCO) period.
Mayor of Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Datuk Wee Hong Seng said the city council was against the move as it could not guarantee the safety of the public.
“If a coffeeshop originally can accommodate 50 customers but with distancing between tables for customers, it can allow ten or less customers for dine-in at any one time.
“This does not diminish the risk of employees or customers contracting the Covid-19 virus and eventually forming a new cluster,” he told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
“Who would be at fault, the customer or coffeeshop owner? Why risk more lives for the sake of a little revenue?”
Wee highlighted that the take-away and delivery system for food outlets is a right move from the start, and the public has gotten used to it.
“For me, it is much better to ‘tapao’ (take-away) food and enjoy it comfortably at home, and I believe many prefer that way as well,” he added.
Wee reiterated that all the efforts that the country had put in to contain the pandemic would go to waste if the public insisted on not abiding with the MCO.
“MBKS officers are giving their best efforts every day to ensure the public practise social distancing and 7-7 rule — and it is already a tough job for them as there are still a handful of people who still do not understand the importance of MCO and social distancing,” he said.
Additionally, Wee hoped that the public would learn the lesson of what happened to Singapore and its circuit breaker method.
“I would like to call on the public, to please be considerate during this pandemic.
“Together, we play our roles as citizens and abide with the MCO regulations so that we can curb the pandemic soonest possible,” he said.
On Saturday, Malaysia-Singapore Coffeeshop Proprietors’ General Association president Datuk Ho Su Mong said tens of thousands of coffee shops have been affected very badly by the MCO, with some forced to fold.
Ho said coffeeshop owners understood the need to extend the MCO, but would like to suggest that the government consider a new system to allow them to survive.
“We are appealing to the government to allow us to make this change so that the impact on all in the food and beverage industry would be reduced.
“We would like to advocate ‘a table for one person’ to dine in, or at the most for two, in order to keep to the social distancing regulation,” said Ho in a local news report.
With over 20,000 Malaysian coffeeshop owners as members of the association, the association said it would write in to urge the government to allow its members to operate under the proposed system.
