KOTA KINABALU – The decision to list goldsmiths and pawnshops as allowed businesses under the second movement control order (MCO) should not raise questions, given that a majority of the Sabah communities are not cash-rich.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah economist Datuk Kasim Mansur said the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry’s decision to allow both businesses to operate during the MCO is “logical”.
“These days, goldsmith and pawnshops serve similarly or close to the role of financial institutions. Sabah has a large number of B40 individuals. B40 means they have low income, but many Sabahans are also known to save for the rainy day.
“If not savings in the bank, it’s gold or jewellery, which are good value keeper items that can be used on rainy days. I’m sure many will decide to cash out their gold during this hard time,” said Kasim, adding that it is much safer to visit the goldsmiths than to go to the banks, which are usually crowded.
A goldsmith who wants to be identified only as Mr Ho, said business had been okay since the MCO last year.
“Yes, we are allowed to open this MCO. But business is just like any other day before MCO,” said Ho, adding that aside from opening up his shop, he also makes house calls to sell and buy gold from his customers.
Ho said some goldsmiths and pawnshops decided to close down as prices of gold at the moment are quite low.
The price of gold has gone down from RM270 to RM250 per gram over the past 12 months.
In the first round of MCO, Ho said many started buying gold due to the lower prices at the time.
Kota Kinabalu Mayor Noorliza Alip also confirmed that pawnshops and goldsmiths are allowed to open during the MCO.
“No reason was given why they were allowed to open.”
Sabah DAP has alleged some of the businesses allowed to operate during the MCO are quite contentious, questioning why they have been designated as essential services.
A senior officer from the domestic trade ministry noted that the compliance levels of non-essential services was good Sabah.
Citing the fact that the present MCO is more relaxed compared to last year, the officer told The Vibes that although the list is released by the federal ministries, the implementation may differ in Sabah.
“We have seen this last year. Not all that the federal does, Sabah will follow. For instance, the operational hours for pump stations are allowed until 10pm in Peninsular Malaysia, it is until 8pm in Sabah,” said the officer.
The decision made at the federal level would be picked up by the Sabah national security council and the Sabah government, but it is up to the state to implement them.
The final decision will be passed down to the local governments, which will proceed to implement the SOPs, he said.
He said this was the reason why some new SOPs can be quite confusing to the businesses, as the state has the final say on all matters. – The Vibes, January 15, 2020
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