MELAKA – Kg Jawa, which has been a popular shopping destination for locals and tourists for more than 100 years, will be closed on May 31 to make way for the development of new projects.
Despite operating in a narrow lane, the business site which has more than 10 traders is not only famous in Melaka but also outside the state among those who wish to buy essential goods.
The closure of the business site, which is on private land, will not only affect the traders but also regular customers, especially the B40 group.
A trader, Sulaiman Omar, 61, said he has been selling clothes and items for haj and umrah in Kg Jawa for almost 46 years and has regular customers from various ages and races.
“I have been doing business here since I was 15-years-old. The traders here have been informed that they have to vacate their respective shops on May 31.
“We are very worried about our fate… if I don’t find a rental shop at a reasonable price, I will have to stop doing business,” he told reporters when met here today.
Sulaiman said he and other traders had to comply with the landowner’s instructions but hoped the state government could help find a new place for them to continue their business.
School uniforms trader Salamah Mohamed, 63, who took over her late husband’s business in 2002, also hopes that the government can establish a new business site in Kg Jawa near the existing location.
Clothes trader Koh Lian Neo, 70, who took over her mother-in-law’s business and has been running it for the past 40 years, said that Kg Jawa is not only a place to shop for necessities but is a historical and heritage site for the state.
“Most people know Kg Jawa. Not only Melaka people but also people from other states because we sell essential goods at cheap prices. Please keep Kg Jawa, not for me or the traders here, but for the poor and underprivileged,” she said.
Another clothes trader Ng Kien Chiew, 55, said he was grateful that the landowner still gave them time to do business until May but was sad that he had to move from the business site that he had inherited from his father more than 30 years ago. – Bernama, January 10, 2023
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