The Malacca government is willing to meet any person on the Jonker Walk controversy, with its tourism deputy exco member Ghazale Muhamad pleading for cooperation to resolve traffic congestion in the area.

“The government is prepared to meet anyone to hear their views. We will see in the coming four weeks whether the closing of the road will result in traffic congestion.

“But for now, the hawkers would not give us space to reopen the road to vehicular traffic on weekends. How are we going conduct tests to reduce congestion?” he was quoted saying in  Malay-daily Sinar Harian today.

The narrow street is closed to traffic from every night from Friday to Sunday for a night market, which is a popular tourist attraction.

Plans to reopen it to traffic to ease traffic congestion has drawn flak, mostly because the Malacca Chief Minister Idris Harun said that it was in response to the Chinese community's support for DAP.

Two days ago, the hawkers responded by cordoning off the road can conducting business as usual.

Ghazale reiterated the chief minister's other claim that they wanted to reopen the road during weekends as there had been complaints, including from tourists, of the long travel time entering the city due to the congestion.

He added that the government is also considering placing the traders in nearby alleys that are equipped with roofs and allow them to conduct business every day.

“When the roads are seriously congested, tourists would not want to come to Malacca and the aim of attracting tourists to the state would be hampered,” he reportedly said.