Thursday, May 17, 2012

From burgers to thosai, what is next?

After reading the articles on the above, I cannot refrain myself from writing this. The contents below are purely based on my personal view only and it is an expression of my thoughts..... happy reading :)
The quotes by people as below are taken from FMT site.

So DIG says :
It is not wrong to sit in front of anyone’s house provided they did not disturb the occupants of the dwelling.
There was nothing wrong with protesting outside a person’s house as long as the occupants are not disturbed.
“What offence? If you want to sit in front of her house without disrupting other people, there is no offence.
“As long as they don’t commit any offence such as trespassing on private property, we will not take action.”

My comment:
Very interesting. So now everyone is allowed to protest outside anyone's house?  If you are not happy with the person for whatever reason, you now have a right to protest and the key to remember is "as long as you do not disturb occupants of the dwelling"
Let's put things into perspective - I believe a lot of us have one reason or another to protest and the most recent cases would be Protest against brutality and violence? Protest for fair elections? Protest for freedom of press? Wala..... maybe someone can come up with 52 protests and every week we can all be "camping" outside a house that we choose.... hmmmm


What has the comment from DIG led to?
Free thosai for all!
When : After 10am, Sunday, 20 May 2012
Where : Jalan 2/7G, Taman Bukit Teratai, Ampang

It is said :
“We plan to promote thosai… Malaysians seems to have forgotten about the dish which had been classified as a heritage food by the Malaysian Heritage Department
“So, the event will be more of an awareness campaign… it is more to introduce the dish than a protest,”
Apart from a free thosai meal, the public would also be taught how to make good thosai.
“Since Khalid had said what he said, we chose his house. This is the assurance he gave. Moreover he is the number two cop in the country… it would be very safe outside his house."

My comment:
Becareful with your words is the only thing that I can say.... watch your words. It can be taken literally and used against you.


A lawyer said this:
According to lawyer K Shanmuga, the protesters violated the Licensing of Hawkers and Stalls (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) 1989 which was enacted under the Local Government Act.
He said the by-laws stipulated that hawkers are allowed to operate only at certain locations
“DBKL does not issue roving license. The business must operate at a fixed location,” he added, citing by-laws 11(1) and 22(2).

My comment:
I am no lawyer but I think I can contest this. The definition of hawker as defined in http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hawker is one who sells. What happened was there was a free burger distribution and what will happen next is free thosai distribution. Surely they are not bound by the Licensing of Hawkers Act? As they are not doing any business ie, there is no selling.


Another comment that I read:
As for the police’s justification for not acting against the “burger” protest, he suggested that stall owners whose premises were demolished by DBKL should set up stalls outside the houses of the mayor and DIG.
“This is wonderful news. Now everyone has the ‘licence to grill’ outside anyone’s house, including that of the mayor, police chief, prime minister and ministers."

My comment:
Well, surely this is not the case because then it will definitely violate the Licensing of Hawkers and Stalls Act as it will becomes a business place and can only be operated in "fixed location". So for all who read this, don't get any "funny ideas" 

 
Lastly, for those who don't know the reason for the free burger distribution, here's it:
Last Thursday, a group of burger stall operators from an NGO called Malaysia Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (Ikhlas) set up their stalls in front of Ambiga’s home and distributed free burgers.
They claimed to have suffered losses amounting to RM200,000 due to the Bersih 3.0 rally led by Ambiga on April 28.

My comment:
WOW, I hope the Income Tax department read this. One day loss = RM 200,000 (Some may say it's not even a day but for easy calculation, lets just say it is one day) A loss of RM 200,000 is to be interpreted by NET of all costs. 
So these traders (I am not sure how many) - lost RM 200,000 net in one day which MEANS the income for the year is RM 62.6m (Only counting 315 days giving one rest day a week) at 20% - that's a whopping RM 12.52m in taxes to be collected. This is ONLY for the traders which are effected on that day which I would assume would be only for those in the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka. We should then be very rich? Another food for thought....? Let the mind wander :)

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