PROJECT 2: INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

Evelin Devina 0322176Ghaida Rashad Noman 0315601Kan Sook San 0319326Koh Sung Jie 0318912Ong Seng Peng 0319016Sham Zhen Wen 0317733Sia Hong Jie 0323506Ricco Soh Zheng Wei 0319890

GROUP 4

Objectives a. To understand the origin of growth of illegal trade.b. To determine how the illegal trade affect the overall economy of Petaling Street.c. To understand how the illegal trades affects the culture and residents’ life.

Methods In order to conduct a proper documentation and analysis of Petaling street, the following methods were taken to collect the necessary information.• Sitevisit: Through observation and experience of the site, individual perceptions and interpretations are generated. • Questionnaires: Surveying the visitors, locals and business owners to get quantitative measures of the different user groups and to conduct specific data.• Interviews: Interviewing the visitors, locals and business owners to get full information of the site as well as understand the users’ points of view and opinions.• Reviewofexistingdataandliteraturereview.

Significance of Study• Investigatewhyaretherenoissuesraisedoractions taken against the illegal activities happening.• Tounderstandthefactorsthatintroducedthe illegal activities to the site.• Concludetheeffectsofillegalactivitiestowardsan area and its surrounding.

Expected Outcomes • Toinvestigatewheredopeopledrawtheline between legal and criminal• Tofullyanalyzethecauseandeffectsofillegaltrade

INTERPRETATION ON PETALING STREET

Looking back at how hard the original Chinese people worked to start and build Petaling Street with the pride of their ethnic identity, the spirit and culture seem to have been fading away. Aside of the big, strong entrance gate as the remembrance of the former glory and some small footmarks left, the place seems to have lost its way in the globalizationflow.

Our point of view

Who to blame when people are just trying to scratch some pennies from the ever-growing desire of other people? Still, what about the sleepless nights, effort, and time invested in a product to build its trademark identity, only to be stolen later on?

Not at fault of visitors to take interest in pirated products. Content with their own life within their financial capability, help the owners to make their living. Yet, is it just for the creator and inventor of such branding?

Where are the goods originated from? Not something the community would like to consider in their mind so long the trade business is profitable to them, both sellers and customers.

Signboards become silent, surviving witness of the history and exhibit mute explanations about the soul of the place at present.

In the middle of the hustle and bustle of the market, some people are lying around in their small, obscure bubble. Asking for some fortune and mercy from the fast-paced, ignorant world. Passing yet another day.

In an attempt to get the best in their life, people are trying to involve the confidence and help from something that they can’t understand with their mind alone. A new hope, guidance, relief, taking every chance they can have to peek at the future, the time and events which are yet to come. People are not fond of unfavoured surprises.

A humble living of a meat seller in a low profile old market. Hidden from the eyesight skimming, the small alley hidden by the street creates a life capsule of unchanging lifestyle of the people from old times.

Making a living from the nature, the ‘Amak’ mediates the nature richness to the people. In faithfulness delivering the treasure of the land becomes accessible to anyone, giving some smiles to families and new strength to continue on with life.

Layered on the mold inherited by many generations before, layers of clay mask are slowly and beautifully polished. A fast glance at the street shows the gleaming and full of colour busy market daily life, passing by the darkness haunting, creeping in the crowd of people. Often ignored, but not forgotten.

The struggle of the little people surviving for their own life slowly corrupts their mind to find alleys and shortcuts to financial freedom. Even if it’s only a temporary escape. The dark dots then slowly radiate like a ripple on the wet mold. At a slow pace, it grows creating, supporting, and defining the community as a whole place.

Creeping in-between the dance of colours at Petaling Street, the black stains become one of them.

An open secret is allowed to exist because people turn a blind eye against it. Even when the signs clearly say “No counterfeit products allowed”, the merchants persist. The customers engage the sellers and provide them business. Even more, the present police officer also turns a blind eye and accepted the trade as natural part of Petaling Street.

A common sight of counterfeit and second hand goods sold in Pasar Pakat, Petaling Street. It is a cheap alternative for locals seeking for goods at bargain price. As we see many fake goods sold, we have to remind ourselves that authentic products, culture and shops are diminishing. The local Chinese community is gradually replaced by the faces of foreigners. However, they do contribute to the economy by maintaining the working sector, making this situation a dilemma of focus between the conservation of culture and heritage and a need for working force.

The degradation of the place leads to the degradation of the activities carried out. The young generation has lost interest in the place and another party replaces them by illegal and “seemingly” legal activities. What they are doing might not seem right, but nonetheless they do it openly, for all to see. This is the Open Secret.

We interviewed more locals than foreigners as the locals are more approachable to us. Most of the people setting up business here come from all ages. However, through observation, the local merchants are usually older than the foreign ones.

Their opinion towards Petaling Street are mixed, more of them being positive. As Petaling Street has become their daily lives, 63% do not consider Petaling Street as the Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur anymore and most of them want the government to take action on improving the location. When asked about illegal shops and stalls, they commented that they do not affect their business thus 63% of them do not want them to be eliminated.

ANALYSIS ON PETALING STREET

OWNERS/WORKERS

The people’s point of view

The types of visitors interviewed were even, having 50/50. However, the visitors interviewed with the questionnaires were young adults as most older visitors were office workers who do not have time nor interest in taking part of the survey.

When asked about their impression on Petaling Street, 4 of them had a more positive opinion while 2 of them thinks that the place has lost its character. Most of them visit Petaling Street because it is a tourist attraction and they found interest in buying apparel, food and other products. Moreover, all of them have bought them from roadside stalls.

VISITORS

Half of the visitors consider Petaling Street still as the Chinatown and the others do not. Only one of them are aware that there are illegal activities at work there. None of them has tried the illegal services. Two-thirds of them wants the illegal activities abolished.

Comments/Opinions by LocalsRubber shop owner (family business)ThebusinessishiddenattheupperflooroftheshophousealongJalanSultan and a back alley of Jalan Sultan. If there are old men sitting at the entrance of staircase, they are mostly pimps who approach the customers. Itisusuallypatronizedbytheforeignworkerstofulfiltheirsexualdesire.Ifprostitution is eliminated, the rape crime rate might increase as there’s no place for them to satisfy their “needs”. The whole Kuala Lumpur is Chinatown as it is mostly occupied by Chinese. I think not only Petaling Street can represent the presence of Chinese culture.

Owner of Chocha food store and Interior DesignerWe came back as Petaling Street is given that notorious impression such as unsafe and unhygienic. As part of the young generation, we have the responsibility to contribute something (through business) to this society. IwouldstillgotoPetalingStreet’sfloristtopurchasesomefreshflowerformy café.

A customer (old lady) who is waiting at false teeth shopRegarding the illegal foreign workers, they managed to escape from police by closing their stalls and then hiding at the places where the police could not find. Even though they are arrested by the police, they will be released if they are willing to pay the “coffee money”. This is the “open secret”. The law enforcement is not strict enough and nobody is willing to stand up for this issue. If there is any discussion on “inappropriate” issues such as “buying second hand house”, the person will be arrested. Therefore, the problem is still unable to be solved.

A false teeth makerThe problem of foreign workers cannot be solved anymore and it is not a negative issue. We rely on them for many things. If they are eliminated from our country, the shop owners will be helpless as they need the foreign workers to help them such as preparing food, cleaning the shop and etc. “Are you willing to do these? Are you willing to do it with a RM1000 salary? Are you willing to work at dirty place without air-conditioning? If you guys are not going to do it, who is going to do it?”

ConclusionAccording to an article from The Star published on 17 March 2016, about 20% of shops in Petaling Street will close theirs doors in the next six months because of poor business. This is due to the operational cost which was too high to sustain in the present slow economy. These small retailers are forced to purchase in big numbers to get a lower rate, but then struggle to sell these items over a long period of time. Not only this, the increasing cost of raw materials and higher salary demanded by the workers as well as the hike on shop rent and the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) has crippled the shop owners.

Based on our findings, all of the visitors we approached bought from roadside stalls instead of the shops, signifying that competition among shops and stalls is fierce or maybe the visitors only intend to buy from the stalls. Moreover, the high number of middle age and elderly people operating business gives us a clue that the younger generation are less inclined to work here. The children of the shopowners received higher education than their parents and thus they sought for a better lifestyle.

All of the storeowners have mentioned that business was better before and it has worsen ever since. The loss of interest by the new generation and the low wage as led to another party replacing the local merchants: they are the immigrants from the neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh and more. This explains why many of our interviewees thinks that Petaling Street is no longer the Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur.

An article from the Malaymail on 24 February 2016, states that these foreign labour have more grit and are more willing to take in the low pay. This is because the condition in their homeland is worse and they could better provide for their family by working here. The occupation do not require advanced education and thus very easy to pick up. Some travelled here legally while many others are illegal immigrants.

They came and start selling cheap products and stolen goods. Most stalls set up are illegal whichexplainshowtheyarenotboundedbyrentpaymentnortaxes.Quotingfromone customer we interviewed, “Even though they are arrested by the police, they will be released if they are willing to pay the “coffee money”. ” Moreover, our observations show us that the police have already turned a blind eye to these roadside stalls.

According to the rubber shop owner, the prostitution in Petaling Street is directly linked to the presence of foreign workers as the demand comes from them. However, we have shed light that there is a notion that the prostitution business is preventing potential rape crimes from foreign workers. Not only that, the foreign workers are the ones that are maintaining the economy in Petaling Street in the tourism aspect.

However, one has to argue that the notoriety of Petaling Street due to its illegal business and the assumption by locals that foreign immigrants can threaten public safety brings a negative impact to Petaling Street. This could further wound the interest towards the place by the younger generation as people would not want to bring their kids there. Thus, creating a cycle which cannot be broken.