Published on: Saturday, December 11, 2004 |
Kota Kinabalu: Suhakam will raise the coconut vendors' plight at the Tanjung Aru beach near here with the Chief Minister's Department and Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).
Its Commissioner Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Hamdan Adnan who heads Suhakam's Complaints and Investigating Working Group believes the 70 coconut vendors have a case against a fast food outlet, which they claimed was "running them" down there.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the area Friday, he commented that it was as though City Hall was prioritising the fast food company rather than the small local coconut vendors.
The rental where the coconut vendors are now located is not only too high but the place is also disadvantageous to them, he said.
Dr Mohd Hamdan said competition was one thing but the competition given by the company was "unfair" to the coconut vendors.
The vendors who used to sell the coconuts in a long line of stalls by the roadside before renovations there, are now relegated to the rear with the fast food company taking over the area fronting the beach.
The coconut vendors said the other food vendors there were also at a disadvantage when the company decided to open up another division of the outlet there despite having their own building just a few feet away.
Prior to the renovation, the coconut vendors claimed they were making at least RM600 per month but now they considered themselves lucky if they earn RM300.
This was due to a lack of customers patronising their stalls. "We are not asking for much, we just want to have our old place back," they said.
Dr Mohd Hamdan said Suhakam wanted to bring the matter up to the ACA to check whether there was any hanky-panky that resulted in the situation.
"We will be meeting the ACA on Dec 28," he said.
Consumer Association for Sabah and Labuan (Cash) President Patrick Sindu who was also there said he would propose a special committee to be formed comprising City Hall, the company and the affected vendors.
Meanwhile, earlier in the morning, Dr Mohd Hamdan received a memorandum from representatives of five villages in Ranau and Kiulu pertaining to customary rights land at the Suhakam Sabah office in Centre Point here.
The villagers claimed their land based on customary rights were taken away from them when it was gazetted as forest reserves by the government resulting in them losing their main source of income, mushrooms.
The villagers told Suhakam that the gazettement of the land had affected some 6,000 people. They claimed they had brought the issue to the respective elected representatives but that this had fallen on deaf ears.
In this respect, Mohd Hamdan said Suhakam would be visiting the area at the end of this month together with the elected representatives as well as to gather data before promising anything to the villagers.
"We don't want to keep the villagers' hopes up," he said, adding, however, initial findings suggested it could be a case of locals being sidelined from the development stream.
