Compounded shop owners may be let off the hook

JOHOR BARU: The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry is reviewing the compound issued against a couple here for not wearing face masks although there were no customers in their shop at the time.

The ministry’s Johor branch said it was aware of and had obtained a report on the March 7 incident.

“We are looking into the basis of the action. If it is found that the compound should not have been issued in the first place, the ministry will refer the matter to the Health Ministry and recommend a reconsideration of the compound, ” it said in a statement yesterday.

The ministry will update the shop owners on the developments in the case.

On Friday, uniform shop owners Hong Chee Sheng, 52, and his wife Yong Chan Chin, 48, complained that they were compounded for apparently not wearing face masks at their empty premises in Taman Johor Jaya.

Hong is said to have pulled down his face mask to take a breather as there were no customers while his wife was having an afternoon coffee in the back room.

“When I noticed a man outside my shop, I quickly put on my face mask properly before walking out, thinking that he was a customer.

“The man, dressed in plainclothes, introduced himself as ministry enforcement officer and rudely told me that I had violated the law by not wearing a face mask.

“I explained to him that there were no customers so I pulled down my face mask for a breather but he insisted that I was in the wrong, ” Hong told a press conference organised by Pasir Gudang MCA chief Tan Tuan Peng on Friday.

He said the officer showed him a video recording on his smartphone and he realised that the man had been secretly filming the shop.

A RM1,000 compound was issued to both Hong and his wife under Section 15 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act.