KOTA KINABALU: Sandakan MP Stephen Wong met with Federal Tourism and Cultural Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz in Parliament yesterday concerning a protest over ‘illegal tour guides’ at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).
Wong handed over to Nazri a letter to urge the government to look into the details of the entire incident instead of taking a severe action against the local tour guides who participated in the protest.
He said in his letter the government should instead hold a dialogue between the local tour guides and listen to their grievances.
“The fact is that the local tour guides are unhappy about ‘sit-in’ tour guides who are hired by tour operators with lower pay, and their income is seriously affected. These sit-in tour guides are allegedly not fluent in Mandarin and therefore tour guides from China would normally play the role to introduce local tourism spots in Mandarin. Although it’s not illegal, it is arguable as it ends up with local tour guides losing their jobs.”
He hoped the government could look into the details.
“We are looking for a win-win situation where local tour guides should be prioritized when it comes to selection of tour guides to guide Chinese tourists. Apparently they are more experienced and it is eventually good for the Sabah tourism industry.”
Nazri, while receiving the letter from Wong, replied that he would be willing to meet up with them in person at parliament on August 7
Wong hoped the minister would not revoke their licences and a holistic approach is taken to create a fair and reasonable profit-sharing guideline involving every player including tour guides and tour operators in the tourism industry.
In the letter addressed to Nazri, Wong criticized Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia (Motac) Sabah director Ahmad Zaki who had taken a harsh action against these tour guides and was being unreasonable in punishing them instead of listening to them in the first place. He said Zaki was unfit to be its director.
Wong reminded Nazri that every Malaysian citizen has constitutional rights to assemble. Furthermore the KKIA incident was a peaceful assembly.
“The government should not simply take sides and ignore tour guides’ difficulties and problems,” he said.