Inefficiency in the banning of foreign cookers in Penang

On 13 July 2015, Penang state government had announced to ban the foreign workers from being employed as the chef cooker.

The new law will be implemented in 2006. All hawkers in hawker centres, coffee shops, food courts in shopping malls and fast food outlets have to follow this new law.

For those who failed to do so their licences will be cancelled.

Although the state government had gave the hawkers one year grace period, but the Penang residents and food lovers still can see the foreign workers cook in the stall.

According to the Malay Mail online on 3 Jan 2016, when they visited new world park food court and hawker stalls at Macalister road, they discover that there are several stalls still employing foreign workers cooking the dishes and manning the stall.

In this case, some of the Penang food lovers have shown their disappointed as the foreigner workers still continue to work as the chef cookers in the stall.

In my opinion, I believe that the problem comes on how the Penang state government implement the law and whether the hawkers obey the law or not.

The authorities should always check on the hawker centres in order to make sure all hawkers are obey the law.

Cancelled the hawker licenses might not be the best way to solve the problem. A heavy penalty should be imposed to those who disregard the law, such as fine RM30, 000 or jail for 3 years.

Moreover, the state government may set a rule for the hawkers to restrict the number of the foreigner’s employment. This is to prevent the foreign workers work as main chef.

Penang is one of the food heaven in the world. So, it is important for Penang state government to solve this problem because this issues will affect the images of the Penang food to the tourist. 

Of course, the most important thing is to maintain the taste and quality of the Penang food. 

The culture and tradition of the real Penang food are worth to keep and it should be pass down to the next generations.