A BUSINESS group has urged the government to help clear the stigma of business premises being listed under the hotspots identification for dynamic engagement (HIDE) system.

The Small & Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta) said the government must clarify to the general public that business premises listed on HIDE do not necessarily make them more dangerous than any other.

“It doesn’t help that the government has ordered all businesses listed in HIDE to close down for cleaning and sanitisation.

“This unnecessarily stigmatises these businesses, and it will take weeks, perhaps months, for these businesses to recover following the negative publicity,” said William Ng, who is the chairman of Samenta Central.

He added that most of the premises listed in HIDE’s maiden list were in shopping malls or are retail outlets.

“As HIDE tracks visitors based on MySejahtera, even if a visitor found to be high-risk and rejected by the business owner from patronising the outlet, the person would be listed to have visited the outlet.

“Similarly, someone who briefly enters a mall carpark, without being in contact with any other person, could also be flagged as high risk, adding to the numbers that could lead to a business being listed on HIDE without it being any riskier than its neighbours,” said Ng.

He added that the association supported HIDE because it was an important tool for business owners to immediately take additional precautions and sanitisation processes to protect their employees and customers.

“However, we need to de-stigmatise the process as it does not help in our economic recovery, nor in keeping the Covid-19 numbers down.”

Samenta, which is Malaysia’s oldest association for small and medium enterprises, also wants the government to clarify the purpose of HIDE.

On Saturday, the government published the first list of premises flagged as potential Covid-19 hotspots identified through HIDE.

Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the list’s publication would help the public make reasonable travel plans before heading to a location to avoid risks of becoming infected by Covid-19.

Listed shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur included Bangsar Shopping Centre, Bangsar Village 2, KL Eco City Mall, Melawati Mall, Mid Valley Megamall, Sungei Wang Plaza and Sogo Complex.

In Selangor, the list included Aeon Mall Rawang, Central i-City Mall, Main Place Mall, Plaza Shah Alam, Paradigm Mall and Subang Parade.

Premises flagged by HIDE are to be closed for three days to curb the spread of Covid-19. – May 11, 2021.