KUALA LUMPUR: Restaurant owners in Bangsar are urging the government to allow them to open past midnight and have roped in the help of former prime minister Najib Razak to make their voices heard.
They say that the National Security Council’s rules make no mention of a cap on business hours for restaurants, cafes and pubs. However, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the police have not allowed them to stay open past midnight, the restaurant owners said.
One of the owners, Siva Shankar, said City Hall and the police had insisted that they wait for an official announcement from the health ministry before extending their hours.
“Now that the entire nation has moved into Phase 4, the final phase of the national recovery plan, a clear announcement is needed from the health ministry to enable restaurant owners to extend their operating hours,” he said.
“We seek the help of Najib to bring this to the attention of policymakers,” he said after a “teh tarik session” with Najib at Maya Restaurant this evening. About 15 restaurant owners, mostly from the busy Telawi area of Bangsar Baru, attended the event.
Shankar said the Telawi area houses about 50 food and beverage outlets, while another businessman, Sunveer Singh, said about 80% of the Telawi area comprised food and beverage outlets.
The highly-popular area houses a variety of restaurants, cafes, bistros and pubs, and there are more eateries in the adjacent Lucky Garden and Bangsar Park neighbourhoods.
Najib said there was demand from many customers for restaurants and cafes to be allowed to operate “basically unlimited hours” as they did before the pandemic hit.
He said longer business hours would help to boost employment and put more money in circulation, thus helping the economy recover faster.
“I think the time has come for an official announcement so that we can open up businesses which, in that manner, will help in the recovery process,” he said.
Another restaurant owner, Joshua Bilique, questioned why some fast-food chains and convenience stores were allowed to open past midnight, but not restaurants in Bangsar, warning of a domino effect on suppliers and workers.
He said business hours should not be a concern in relation to Covid-19 as infections were not dependent on certain hours of the day.
The Klang Valley has been in Phase 4 since Oct 18 while the rest of the country moved into Phase 4 in stages until Jan 3.
Operators of other cafes in neighbouring Lucky Garden have also backed the calls for pre-pandemic operating hours.
“Jo-jo”, the co-owner of Arul D Cafe, a roadside stall in Lucky Garden, said the limited opening hours meant that the cafe had lost a key clientele in the supper crowd.
He told FMT that it was habitual for Malaysians to have supper at Indian Muslim cafes or to just meet at that hour over a cup of teh tarik.
He said his first restaurant in Jalan Bellamy, near central Kuala Lumpur, had to be closed during the height of the pandemic because of the high overhead costs.
“If it’s possible, we want to stay open for 24 hours. In Malaysia, that was the norm. There are some who finish work in the wee hours of the morning, they used to be our customers,” he said.
A staff member of a popular Indian Muslim restaurant also in Lucky Garden said the operating hours should go back to “normal” since people were now living essentially as they did in pre-pandemic times.
He said the restaurant used to be packed even past midnight, which meant the loss of a big chunk of potential revenue due to the cap on business hours. - FMT
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