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Bukit Mertajam MP Helps A Couple Who Were Sleeping On Footpath

The couple would rummage through garbage to look for items to sell during the day and had been sleeping on the footpath at night.

Cover image via Steven Sim Chee Keong 沈志强 (Facebook)

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Editor's note: The story has been updated with more details from MP Steven Sim.

A couple from Kelantan, who recently moved to Penang to make a living, were forced to sleep by the roadside near Taman Bidara, Bukit Mertajam, after failing to find a job amidst the movement control order

The husband and wife had been sleeping on the footpath for three nights with no access to food due to MCO being implemented, according to Bukit Mertajam Member of Parliament (MP) Steven Sim Chee Keong.

In posts made on his Facebook and Twitter earlier this morning, 29 May, the Bukit Mertajam MP noted that he received information about the couple through members of the public.

Sim said that after learning about the couple's situation, he wasn't willing to let them sleep on the footpath for even a second anymore

According to him, the couple would rummage through garbage to look for items to sell during the day and had been sleeping on the footpath at night.

Last night, following Sim's help, the couple were boarded at a hotel.

"Shah and Siti, your suffering is over. Tonight, sleep well in the hotel. Tomorrow we start a new life," wrote Sim, who has been helping the vulnerable people of the society amidst the MCO.

For now, the Bukit Mertajam MP has arranged for a house for the couple to stay along with essential supplies to last them till they find a job

Late last month, a controverial academic's attempts to inflame racial tensions by accusing the Bukit Mertajam MP of having an ulterior motive against Muslims had caused troubles for a foodpanda rider:

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