SANDAKAN – Sabah restaurant owners are not complaining any more – they are just grateful for being allowed to open their doors for dine-ins.
This follows the recent dine-in-fiasco in Sabah that left restaurant owners in limbo over whether to allow dine-ins.
Sabah was thrown into a dilemma on June 29, a day after Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor announced that dine-ins and hair cutting services are allowed in the state despite the federal government forbidding such activities.
With that, most restaurants proceeded to allow dining in, even though official standard operating procedures from the National Security Council on the matter have yet to be issued.
Fara Ramsah, owner of the Warkop restaurant in Bandar Prima here, said she was relieved dine-ins were allowed as they earned her twice the amount take-aways make at at RM600 per day.
“But that is still far less than what we used to earn before the pandemic, because people are staying at home now,” she said.
She also said that the recent dine-in confusion was troublesome as they were unable to prepare early for any possibility.
“It was really confusing. We are not in sync with Putrajaya. That is fine, but our enforcement personnel are actively issuing people compounds even though there is still no clear instruction or SOP.
“However, I am now grateful that I am still able to generate income, compared with other industries such as nail salons that are still banned from opening,” she said.
Another restaurant owner in Sejati Walk Mile 7, Izrul Ibrahim, said that he had to arrange the dining tables at his premises multiple times.
“We found ourselves arranging the tables many times, which required manpower and energy. It was troublesome,” he said.
Even though his business only earned 10% more from dine-ins, Izrul said it was important to have people patronise the restaurant as it created a lively and happening atmosphere.
Abbey Chung, another café owner here, said that she wished there was a better platform for people to check on current SOPs.
“If Sabah wants different SOPs from the peninsula, that’s fine. But can we have a proper platform to announce these SOPs? Right now, we are picking up news from here and there, without even knowing if they are accurate.
“The MKN Sabah (Sabah National Security Council) Facebook page is obviously useless because it usually takes days before they update SOPs.
“It is like when Lahad Datu and Sandakan were placed under the movement control order (MCO) earlier this year, replacing the conditional MCO at the time; we had to wait until the second day of the MCO to receive the complete SOPs.
“What did we do during the first day of MCO? We applied our own SOPs.
“Isn’t that funny? If the government wants us to comply with the SOPs, give us the SOPs on time,” she stressed. – The Vibes, July 4, 2021
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