Malacca is known as a tourism state and one of its most popular tourist spots would be Jonker Walk, which was founded by local MCA leader Gan Boon Leong in 2000.

Though the famous landmark started from humble beginnings as a street of Dutch colonial buildings in the heart of the Malaccan town, it soon gained fame as Jonker Walk.

Until today, the tourist attraction is still managed by MCA through the Jonker Walk committee.

The new Malacca Chief Minister Adly Zahari, however, has no plans of ousting them from managing Jonker Walk.

"The way we look at it now is that we do not want to take over but for me, we need to work together with the Jonker Walk committee to further develop it," he said to Malaysiakini in an interview at Seri Negeri, the administrative centre of the Malacca state government.

The committee, he added, has also indicated that they are open to discussion and cooperation with the new Pakatan Harapan state government.

The Jonker Walk committee adviser Gan Tian Loo, son of its founder Boon Leong, had reportedly said that he hopes the night market remains "apolitical" and continues to be run by the committee.

While Adly (photo) has no intention of taking over the committee, he said he would like to include more of the local community in the committee so that they can have more say in managing Jonker Walk.

"We will increase the participation of the local community there because there are also concerns among them that the heritage is not being managed properly, which could affect Jonker Walk in the future.

"(We want to) make the committee more open," he said.

When Boon Leong first founded Jonker Walk, it was not immediately successful.

A trader at Jonker Walk had previously told Malaysiakini that when it first started, only Boon Leong would visit the stalls.

"When (Jonker Walk) first started, no one walked the street. Only one person walked this street - Boon Leong. It was so sad," the trader recalled.

But Boon Leong, who was an award-winning bodybuilder, has left its mark on the tourist spot, most notably with a statue bust of him during his body-building prime adorning the street.

Adly recognises the importance of further developing Jonker Walk, calling it a "heritage" of Malacca.

But the chief minister has bigger plans to realise the tourism potential in Malacca.

"All this time, Jonker Walk did not widen its opportunities.

"There are actually so many other streets apart from Jonker Walk which we can develop because actually, the heritage of Malacca is the Malacca town itself," he said. 

Adly's willingness to work together with the opposition has not always been received warmly by the public.

His decision to appoint Azmi Hussien, an alleged Umno member, as the new Melaka Historic City Council (MBMB) mayor, had drawn flak from Harapan members and supporters.

While he said he can accept the criticisms over this appointment, he urged the public to respect the position of those working in civil service, as long as those civil servants do not display their political leanings in the open. 

He also pointed out that Azmi is not working with the government on a contract, but is a permanent staff of the government, who was previously the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Melaka (PKNM) chief executive officer, a position that puts him at the civil servant grade of Jusa C.

Previously, Adly's spokesperson had explained that because Azmi had reached Jusa C, when they reshuffled civil servants in the state administration, they had to find a position of equal status for him which was the mayor position.

Adly also revealed that the Harapan state government in Malacca will be allocating funds to opposition assemblypersons.

"We will give an allocation of RM36,000 per year for each opposition assemblyperson, for their service centre," he said.

That comes up to RM3,000 allocation a month for BN assemblypersons in Malacca. 

Meanwhile, Harapan assemblypersons will be allocated RM16,500 a month while executive councillors will receive RM18,500 allocation per month.