CORONAVIRUS | The authorities seek to limit excuses to flout the movement control order (MCO) if the e-bazaar is implemented during the upcoming Ramadan, said Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The defence minister said the cabinet will discuss the competing suggestions between an e-bazaar involving ordering and delivery, and an e-bazaar concept of order and pick up at the Ramadan bazaar itself.

He said the cabinet is concerned there may be people who might use the excuse of picking up an order from a Ramadan bazaar to the police. This might lead to situations where others may use that excuse merely to violate the MCO.

“There are suggestions for the e-bazaar to involve order and delivery. There are (also) views (for the e-bazaar) to involve order and pick up at the Ramadan bazaar (but) this may lead to mass movement (of people).

“Even if we place an order via e-bazaar, if it involves physically picking up (the food) at a Ramadan bazaar, there would be crowding.

“The idea is not to give an excuse to people to go out (and flout the MCO). If there is an avenue to pick up the item (ordered from e-bazaar), the police would face difficulty as they (the people) will give an excuse that they have placed an order so they need to go out and collect it. 

“We hope to reduce this kind of excuse to go out (during the MCO). We will discuss it at the cabinet,” Ismail Sabri said.

On April 3, Ismail Sabri said that there will be no Ramadan bazaars across the country as long as the MCO is in effect.

Since that announcement, the idea of an e-bazaar Ramadan platform became more widely discussed in public, with the Malaysian Malay Hawkers and Small Traders Association on April 5 reportedly saying that they will develop a Ramadan e-bazaar platform for its members to conduct their businesses online.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

Malaysiakini is providing free access to the most important updates on the coronavirus pandemic. You can find them here.

Help keep independent media alive - subscribe to Malaysiakini.