Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is sticking to its proposal to issue sales permits for the upcoming Chinese New Year festival to Chinese traders only.

Its director of hawker development and licence, Ibrahim Yussof, said that due to limited space, controversy might arise if other races were also allowed to sell their goods.

"Normally peddlers will sell festival-related goods; for instance, Indian traders will sell religious items in the Deepavali bazaar, Malays will sell baju melayu during the Ramadan bazaar, and Mandarin oranges are sold in the Chinese New Year bazaar.

"There is only limited space available. I don't want to see the deserved ethnic group unable to get their licence. They will be disatisfied."

Ibrahim insisted that the move to issue permits to Chinese traders only was not to create racial disharmony, but rather was based on demands.

"We have been doing this for the past few decades and nobody had complained."

Ibrahim also said Chinese and Malay hawkers in Jalan Pasar have agreed to do business in the same area for the Chinese New Year festival.

"There are Chinese and Malay (hawkers) in Pudu. We give 70% of the stalls to the Chinese and 30% to the Malay traders for the Chinese New Year festival, and vice-versa during Ramadan. There is no problem as there is mutual agreement among them.

"However, if you allow Chinese and Indian peddlers to hawk their goods in Masjid India and Lorong TAR during Ramadan, the Malay peddlers will make noise."

He said for the Masjid India Ramadan bazaar, only 500 temporary licences are issued but there are more than 5,000 applications.

If DBKL allows other ethnic groups to enter (Lorong TAR) it will create dissatisfaction, he said.

Yesterday, DAP Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai voices opposition against DBKL's limitation of Jalan Pasar Chinese New Year sales to Chinese peddlers only.

He claimed the policy was racist in nature.