PjKita@SriD Wet Market: Credit to Whom Credit is Due

9 July 2022

By Stephen Ng

If not because of the way how the property owner of a nearby building had chased out these retailers in Sri Damansara, we would not have a brand new wet market.

A trader, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that their state assemblywoman, Elizabeth Wong should not evade the retailers due to the misunderstanding that was caused by certain individuals in the past.

"We are happy with the efforts of the Yang Berhormat to get for us a wet market to carry out our business," she said. "Before this, we were asked to leave the old wet market within just two days.

Known as PJKita@ Sri Damansara Wet Market was launched in March 2022. Click image to read the news

"Of course, at that time, some people were angry with the state government for not helping to solve the problem, but there is no reason for her to use another route to evade us."

A smile soon appeared on her face when she expressed her gratitude to Wong and her team for their efforts to build a wet market.

Writer's comments:

Credit to Whom Credit is Due

Credit to whom credit is due. Knowing the anger expressed by the traders towards Wong a few years ago, I have to say that Wong was not at fault, but to evade the people was not the way for her to handle angry voters.

Now that they are no longer squatting in makeshift stalls by the roadside, these traders are happy to welcome back their state assemblywoman.

This is one of the major contributions by Wong since she was elected as state assemblywoman in 2008. There are, of course, other tasks that she was supposed to carry out, one of which involved the title of homes (still 'Hakmilik Sementara' after more than 40 years) in Desa Jaya.

Unlike her senior, Selayang MP YB William Leong, who kept people in Taman Daya updated regarding their individual title, Wong should have more frequent meetings with the people to update them of the progress. No one expects her to solve the problem overnight, but at least, she keeps them updated at all times.

After winding up the developer's company, Leong managed to kill two bird with one stone. He solved an abandoned apartment project in Taman Daya and individual titles were released to the rest of the house owners after 30 years. Nothing was done when Barisan Nasional was in power.

New Market, New Image

Now that Sri Damansara residents have a new wet market, they expect the place to be kept clean at all times. It will hopefully be the place they get their weekly groceries.

This would not only attract housewives but the entire family to the place for breakfast, provided they have good food and the place is kept clean.

I would not bring my children to the wet market in Desa Jaya (poorly managed by Selayang Municipal Council) because it is always wet and dirty. Even if I want to bring them there, they would not even step into the wet market themselves!

On the long weekend, most stalls are closed when we visited the wet market

But Sri for Damansara wet market, chances are, I will return to the hawker centre with my family to have our meals here, especially when the Malay stall operators are back from their long weekend, after Hari Raya Haji. With the open air ventilation, the place is comfortable even on a hot day.

Speaking to one of the stall operators, who prefers to be known as Rani, I told her it is important that the floors are not wet. If the floor is slippery and wet, old people have the tendency to fall and break their their bones.

The wet market should be kept clean to attract the young professionals

Cleaning should not be left to the end of the day, but the traders themselves should have a pail and a mop ready at all times, to ensure that their own area is safe for the old folks.

Hygiene, comfort and fair prices are after all the reasons why young professionals choose to pick their groceries from the supermarkets. This is something for the traders here to learn if they want to attract the younger generation.

It is about time for wet market stall operators to move with the times. For example, with this lady, Rani, I can pre-order my curry powder and just drive through to pick up the items. If she can offer payment using Touch N Go, it would be even more convenient for both parties. All I need to do is to send a message, "Rani, prepare for me the fish curry powder 100 g. Here is the payment via Touch N Go." Her Whatsapp is 016-2542604 (Rani/Rempah). <--click this to send her a Whatsapp message

Rani with her homemade fish curry powder

I am sure the other traders can do the same. Here is where Integrity is very important. One reason why the supermarkets are doing well is because when we buy any item, we know we are not shortchanged. Many of us have weighing balances at home, and the moment we know a trader is cheating on us, that would be the last time we visit the stall.

Award Winning Market

The question now is whether the Petaling Jaya City Council and the management team will turn this place into an award winning wet market.

If there are incentives for the traders to keep their stalls clean, I am sure they will

compete to keep the place clean at all times for the sake of their customers. Even a month's free rental is good enough for most stall operators.

Meanwhile, with so much vegetable wastes generated, I think MBPJ should encourage and teach single mothers to recycle food wastes into organic fertiliser. This could be a good source of income for them.

This is the daily vegetable waste from one trader alone. Anyone interested to do composting can collect from the trader

Retailers hope that more people will know about the wet market

Fresh vegetables are aplenty here at the wet market

Finger monger is happy that he can make a living again after the pandemic

All kinds of bags for the mobile phone

---

After buying our ingredients from the wet market, we tried out our Shakshuka:

Language Learning Workshop

For those who are interested in translating the Bible into the local language of the people....

Register at this link

shorturl.at/jqQ49 or, Simply click on the poster above

Return to this link for any updates with regards to this event.

A Layman's Explanation about Contextual Theology

By Stephen Ng

The more I read Cook, I realise that those of us who are in the marketing of higher education, are already fully exercising what theologians now call contextualisation.

It is basically target marketing, to put it simply -- same product for different market segments.

For example, an engineering programme at Monash University Malaysia can be targeted at students who completed different pre-university programmes.

For those who had completed their A-Levels, for example, we tell them the entry requirements based on their A-Levels results; this is not something that we would give to someone who completed his/her UEC or STPM, the other equivalents of A-Levels or Matriculation programmes. Even when we write articles for the Education Supplement pages in the local newspapers, we tailor our messages to different target groups. If we are asked to write for a children's magazine, we would talk about other more interesting things about the university. We need to know the target segments. I remember, when I was an Laboratory Manager of Union Carbide (known as Union Polymer in Malaysia) dealing with in emulsion polymers, we had one product that could be used for different applications. PVA or polyvinyl acetate (our code was UP 101) can be applied in cheap paint (e.g. ICI Matex). It was labelled 101 because PVA was the simplest of all polymers that we produced. The same emulsion polymer can also be used as adhesives for parquet flooring. So, when we go with our marketing staff to meet someone at Nippon Paints, for example, we would only talk about its application in paints. We don't talk to them about floor adhesives, or else they would kick us out of their office. Not only we talk about it as 'different products' to different customers, we label it differently. For paint manufacturers, it was UP-101 but for adhesives people, it was labelled with another code number. To make it even clearer, it is like the seminary or university that we are studying in. Some of us study Chemistry, others study Engineering, yet it is the same university, just that our experience at the same university is quite different. Likewise, we have a same theology throughout the world -- Biblical Theology -- but before it can be relevant to the people in different cultures, it must be contextualised first. Hence, this is what theologians call, "Contextual Theology" or as Cook calls it in his title, "Local theology." Exactly how this local theology can be applicable to the global church is something that is worth finding out as I continue plough through the book to explore the thoughts of different writers in the book.