BLIND masseurs are surviving on free meals from soup kitchens and help from regular customers, while massage centres have remained closed since early last month due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These centres have been shut under movement-control order 3.0 announced on May 7. The full lockdown that followed on June 1 added to their plight.

Owners are now unsure when they will be allowed to operate again and earn their living as normal.

President of the Certified Blind Masseurs Association Lee Sheng Chow told The Malaysian Insight that business at the centres was slowly picking up following the first MCO last year but all that has now come to a stop.

He pleaded with the government to support them because their livelihood had been badly affected by the lockdown.

The association has about 100 centres as members, of which 20 are located in Brickfields with 150 masseurs working. There are about 2,000 blind masseurs nationwide.

Lee’s traditional massage centre in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, has 38 years of history and is also the first blind massage centre established in Malaysia.

He said the centre recouped half its business from the recovery MCO in June last year, but it was short-lived.

“The business slowly dropped to 20% at the end of last year. The number of cases then rose again during the Lunar New Year leaving the business down by 10%,” Lee said.

Under the total lockdown, there has been zero business, he said.

He added that the more than 20 blind massage centres in Brickfields have started closing down one after another during the pandemic.

“There is no business, but you have to deal with a lot of expenses. Even the licence fee is not exempted.

“The business was bad last year, and I started to use my savings to support it. If the situation continues this year, my savings will run out,” Lee said.

He is worried that the 50 employees at his centre will suffer immeasurably if the government decides to extend the MCO.

“Some masseurs must support their families. Some couples work as masseurs together and they need to raise children and provide household income.

“Now they have lost their source of income and their lives have been completely disrupted.

“Fortunately, there are many non-profit organisations in our community that distribute free meals to blind masseurs regularly so that they will not go hungry,” Lee said.

He said some kind souls have also provided other daily necessities. However, if the blind are unable to pay the rent, they have to resign and return to their hometown.

Helping hand from regular customers

Ivan Wong, 39, has been a blind masseur in Kuala Lumpur for five years.

He said that government assistance for the disabled community was just a drop in the ocean.

He thanked regular customers who remembered the blind masseurs and took the initiative to deliver food to them at their dormitory.

“I have to be frugal at this time and it’s still OK for me as I am single, but some of my colleagues have wives and children, their lives are even more difficult,” Wong said.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Association for the Blind said it had sent a letter to the Ministry of Health last year to suggest that blind massage centres should no longer be classified in the entertainment field.

Lee from Certified Blind Masseurs Association said that it was still in the grey zone.

“It’s still at a vague stage. We understand their worries because our work involves close contacts, but we also have our standard operating procedures and we follow them strictly,” Lee said.

Ooi Chiang Mei has owned a blind massage centre in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, for nine years.

She hoped that the blind massage industry can be reclassified as non-entertainment related.

“The entertainment industry is the last industry to be allowed to open up every time during the movement restrictions, and our industry will be implicated.”

She said that the massage services were oriented towards treatment and many customers returned with backaches and headaches to seek relief.

“Moreover, many customers know that we are blind, so they will take the initiative to cancel the appointment once they know that they have been in contact with a confirmed Covid-19 infected person or have symptoms.

“They choose to protect us because they know that it will bring inconvenience once a blind person is diagnosed with Covid-19,” Ooi said.

She said that she understands the government’s measures to protect the people, but they need to restore their sources of income to survive.

“Shop and dormitory rentals and living allowances of RM300 per employee, it costs more than RM5,000 if the centre is closed for a month,” Ooi said.

She said that there were discounts on shop rentals during the first and second MCOs but there had been none during MCO 3.0.

“If we have to close down and rebuild our business, it will not be easy, because regular customers don’t come overnight. At the same time, the blind will have to adapt again and it will be a big problem.”

The government initially implemented a two-week total lockdown from June 1 to June 14, which has since been extended until, it says, until national reported daily Covid-19 infections drop below 4,000.

During this period, all social and economic activities are forbidden except for essential services listed by the National Security Council. – June 29, 2021.