( In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, over the past few months, the Ministry of the Environment has suddenly conducted very stringent inspections on hawker centres. They have also issued summonses and imposed fines on hawkers, thus causing grave concern and fear among the hawkers. So on this development, I hope that the Ministry of the Environment will give a proper clarification and explanation. First of all, I would like to state that the Government Parliamentary Committee on the Environment has always been supportive of the Government's measures to enhance food hygiene. The GPC on the Environment has also repeatedly asked for appropriate actions to be taken against those food manufacturers, restaurants and stallholders for causing food poisoning. But I feel that the recent actions of the Ministry of the Environment against the hawkers have been excessive and overdone. These controls and regulations should, therefore, be reviewed. The Ministry of the Environment's objective, of course, is to enhance food hygiene. This is generally understood and supported by the people. But how to enhance the level of food hygiene is a question of the method of implementation. Therefore, it is necessary to have consultations and discussions with the hawkers concerned. Because certain measures may appear feasible, in theory, but may, in reality, have problems with implementation. As an illustration, the Ministry of the Environment officials say that hawkers are not allowed to handle food with their bare hands. They should use forks and spoons, or other utensils. But the preparation of certain food, such as popiah, cannot be done without using your hands. But the Ministry of the Environment officials say that if they want to handle food with their hands, then they must wear gloves. But the officials forget about the inconvenience caused by wearing gloves. I have a few samples of gloves here [indicating]. So you can see that some of these gloves, made of plastic, are ill-fitting. Because they are made of plastic, there is no ventilation and a lot of heat is generated inside the gloves. Some gloves are too large. So if you wear an over-sized glove and you have to cut something, it will also cut away the fingers of the glove, and these will go into the popiah. This is a real problem. Worse still, when they are wearing gloves and have to collect and change money, they must not forget to remove them. And if they change money with the gloves on, then it will be even more unhygienic. Even assuming that the hawker keeps on taking off and putting on the hand gloves, the gloves will become dirtier. And it is against the standard of hygiene. So this is a practical problem. Maybe the Ministry of the Environment should not insit that food handlers must wear gloves. Instead they should require that all food handlers should keep their hands clean. In other words, before they handle food, they must keep their hands clean, and they are not allowed to handle money or other things with their bare hands. Then, of course, they should not be allowed to dig their noses and ears. If they are found indulging in unhygienic practices, then should be fined. This is feasible. Now, another headache to the hawkers is the Ministry of the Environment's ruling and insistence that all cooked food must be cooked within the premises of the hawker stalls. If food is pre-prepared at home and sold at the stall, then it is illegal. But we must not forget that certain kinds of food cannot be prepared inside the stall itself, because the space within the hawker stall is too small. This is another practical problem faced by the hawkers. The Ministry of the Environment is worried that the food prepared at home may not comply with the standard of hygiene. But I would like to ask the Minister whether he has got any facts to prove that food prepared at home has failed to live up to the standard and has caused food poisoning. Another complaint by hawkers is that the hawker inspectors, in carrying out their duties, lack flexibility. They tend to make mountains out of molehills. They are discourteous and unreasonable. I hope that the Minister for the Environment will take note of this point and should give proper directives to the hawker inspectors that, in carrying out their duties, they should not adopt the attitude of the police catching the thief. They should not resort to the method of "ambushing" the hawkers. If hawkers should make any mistake, it is for the hawker inspector to tell them where they have gone wrong and show them the right way of doing things, in the first instance. And if such mistake is repeated, then the inspector can summon them. I have received some complaints. A fruit seller has cut some fruits and displayed the cut pieces of fruits like apples, watermelon and papayas inside the glass case at the stall. On his right hand, there was no glove because he had to hold a knife. On his left hand, he had to hold the fruit, so he wore a glove. But one of the pieces on display was out of alignment, so he used the right hand, which had no glove on, to put it right. Then the hawker inspector who was, in "ambush" suddenly came out from somewhere and caught him using his bare hand to touch the watermelon. And so he was summoned. I think this is too much. The hawkers feel that they cannot be blamed entirely for all the faults. For example, if rats and cockroaches are found in their stalls, then the hawkers will be severely penalised. But the hawkers said that these rats and cockroaches are not bred by them. Many of them come from the sewers nearby or the rubbish-heaps in the neighbourhood. But once they are found inside the stall by the hawker inspectors, then bad luck for the hawker concerned. So, now, what the hawkers fear most are the rats, cockroaches and the hawker inspectors! And if the rats, cockroaches and hawker inspectors do not visit the stall at the same time, there will be no problem. But if by coincidence all the three come together, then it is just bad luck, woe betide for the hawker. In short, I hope that the Ministry of the Environment will take a dialogue and educational approach with the hawkers, in order to enhance food hygiene and the hygiene of the hawker centres. I am not saying that the Ministry of the Environment is not doing this. In fact, over the past two years, the Ministry of the Environment has indeed done some educational work and taken measures to enhance hygiene in the hawker centres. This, of course, needs our commendation, and the GPC on the Environment has always been supportive of these measures. But I feel that education and explanation should be further enhanced and strengthened because, at the moment, there are still some hawkers who feel that they have been using the same method of operation, from one generation to another generation, without any problem whatsoever. Why should the Ministry of the Environment make mountains out of molehills and introduce so many new rules and regulations? To these hawkers, we should go through the method of education, to persuade them to change their old concept and methods, and to give up the old, bad habits. I must say that to those who have refused to listen to persuasion and education, and who do not care about public hygiene, and continue to sell unhygienic food, then apart from the educational method, the Ministry of the Environment has to take appropriate punitive measures. I will give you a few more examples, Mr Speaker, Sir, to show that, up to now, there are still many hawkers who do not quite understand the rules and regulations of the Ministry of the Environment. My parliamentary colleague, Mr Chandra Das, the Chairman of the Feedback Unit, has recently conducted a dialogue session with the hawkers. One of the hawkers who attended this dialogue session asked if according to the regulations of the Ministry of the Environment, a fruit stallholder could only sell a watermelon in whole. So if a customer wants to buy only half a watermelon, can the hawker display the other half for sale? Or if somebody wants to buy half a watermelon, he must look for two customers, each wanting to buy half, so that he could sell the whole watermelon. These questions may sound ridiculous. But it reflects a problem and, that is, generally, the hawkers do not quite understand the regulations of the Ministry of the Environment. So I feel that the Ministry of the Environment should take the trouble to explain, and, if necessary, explain again to the hawkers all the rules and regulations of the Ministry. I hope also that the hawkers should not take an indifferent attitude, on the other hand, and deliberately contravene the rules with full knowledge. They should cooperate with the Ministry of the Environment in enhancing the standard of hygiene of hawker centres. In many hawker centres, the standard of hygiene is far from satisfactory and it has to be improved. So with a higher standard of living of the people in general, the consumers have greater demands. The hawkers should also keep pace with the change of the environment and improve their image and standard of hygiene.