DBKL: No burger stall when we visited

While an array of photos and videos show some traders operating a burger stall in front of Ambiga’s house two weeks ago, DBKL says the stall did not exist when its officers came calling…three days later. 

(Free Malaysia Today) – The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has done it again. Despite news of a burger protest in front of S Ambiga’s house on May 10 splashed across news pages and websites, the City Hall has denied that there was ever a burger stall set up in front of her residence.

Responding to an e-mail query by FMT on action to be taken against the stall operator, DBKL enforcement division spokesperson Abdul Syatar Abdul Halim said :”Based on a complaint received on May 14, this department conducted an investigation at the location in Bukit Damansara only to find no burger hawkers operating in front of Ambiga’s house.

“According to Ambiga’s personal body guard, the hawkers left on May 10,” said Syatar.

On May 10, by 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 resorted to this action because they claimed that the Bersih rally for free and fair elections in the federal capital on April 28 had disrupted their livelihood.

The police, on their part, had said that they were powerless to act against the burger protesters as these hawkers did not break any laws that was criminal in nature.

The attention then turned towards DBKL, which enacts and enforces local council by-laws in Kuala Lumpur.

On Wednesday, lawyer K Shanmuga pointed out that the protesters flouted by-laws 11(1) and 22(2) of the Licensing of Hawkers and Stalls (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) 1989 which was enacted under the Local Government Act.

With the DBKL’s reply today, it is very unlikely that the burger protesters in front of Ambiga’s house would face the law.