Singapore – Limiting dining at hawker centres and coffeeshops  is discrimination, says hawker food maven KF Seetoh.

Calling out the easing of curbs that up to five fully vaccinated people from the same household to dine in restaurants, but keep the cap on hawker centres and coffeeshops at two, he said: “It smells discriminatory, it reeks of the elitist graduate mothers policy back in the 1980s when under-educated mums were paid $10,000 to ligate.”

Set to kick in on Nov 10, the new cap of five will not extend to hawker centres  and coffee shops, as they are deemed unable to carry out comprehensive checks on all diners.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Seetoh branded the changes as measures that “marginalize the poor and benefit the rich”.  The changes act as a  “social divide” against “the poorer ones who are vaxxed but cannot eat at kopitiams and hawker centres”.

Referring to vaccination status checks at  hawker centres and kopitiams, he added: “But don’t you know your erstwhile environment Cabinet colleages are in charge of the hawker centres, and already have one or two tight entry and exit points in every hawker centres. Did you tell that Ministry they are not effective”.

“Please do not make it sound like it’s the voters job and responsibility to do this. They cannot enter hawker centres if they are not scanned and traced in. Smells like you did no[t] go to hawker centres since Covid came a visiting. I think hawker centres and kopitiam should have more airtime in your regular Cabinet meetings”, said Seetoh, who founded the hawker food guide Makansutra and has since become an advocate for all things hawker.

He said he did not understand how the government planned to help the hawkers because many hawker centres were closed for three to four months for repairs in the middle of the pandemic, taking away “whatever little business they have”. He also noted that rental waivers were short-lived, with the rent eventually being raised when hawkers renew their rental contracts.

He wrote that the government gave members of the public $100 vouchers that could be used at hawker centres. “Bravo. i say, then the fine print says “only at 900 participating hawkers”. what about the other 20,000 plus hawkers. How special must one hawker be to benefit from the national coffers in this situation”.

In the middle of the pandemic, he said, the government accepted a rental bid of $8,000 from a hawker at the East Coast Lagoon hawker centre.

“This one is rather insulting to your claims of being a world class government out to help the stuggling industry in such dire times”, he said.

MOH said it is prepared to extend the group-of-five rule to hawker centres and coffee shops once they have put in place additional control measures. The National Environment Agency will be engaging hawkers’ associations on this, while the Singapore Food Agency will work with coffee shop operators. Further updates will be provided when ready, said the ministry.