NS targets hawkers at PR gatherings

(Harakah) – In what is believed to be a first in the country, the Negri Sembilan state government announced that it would revoke the business licences of those who set up stalls at events organised by Pakatan Rakyat.

Malay-language tabloid Sinar Harian today quoted the state’s exco member for Industry, Entrepreneurial and Cooperative Development Yunus Rahmat (pic) as saying he had received “complaints” of stalls being set up using “government facilities and equipment”.

“We recently found a stall at a PAS ceramah in Kampung Bukit Serambai using the Fama umbrella,” lamented Yunus, who is the Kuala Klawang state assemblyman, and added that he had instructed officers of Fama, the government’s Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority, to report any use of government “equipment” at such events.

Yunus admitted that there was nothing the authorities could do to stop those who wanted to earn income by setting up businesses at opposition events.

However, he claimed that 30% of their profits would be channeled to the opposition parties “and this amounts to indirect support of the opposition”, he added.

Pakatan Rakyat has said that the tiny state was one of its prime targets for the coming general elections. In 2008, the coalition won 15 of the 36 state seats, from a mere two seats it won in 2004.