IF we are expecting PAS to leave non-Muslims alone to practise their own lifestyles, then we must be naïve.
The Kota Baru Municipal Council has agreed to cancel the fine imposed on a non-Muslim boutique owner for “indecent” attire after a discussion with the Local Government Department director-general.
“The woman should not have paid the fine, as she may have been misled to do so. She wore shorts in her own shop, which sells shorts,” Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming told a press conference yesterday.
However, the council’s severe action, according to the interpretation of its enforcement officer, isn’t the first.
Previously, unisex hair salons in the PAS-run state had been penalised for opening their doors to both genders. The authorities have imposed separate check-outs in its supermarkets and cinemas have long been shut down.
For those of us outside of Kelantan, we can protest our hearts out at this form of overreaction, but the reality is that the officer was reportedly acting within his rights.
After all, it has been reported that there is the Kelantan Business and Industrial Trade By-Laws 2019, under Section 34 (2) (b), which stipulates that non-Muslim business licensees must ensure they and their non-Muslim workers wear decent clothes. If their employees are Muslims, they should wear attire covering their aurat (modesty).
The trouble is the criteria for modest dressing, in the eyes of PAS leaders and even the security guards at our government offices, are always different.
In the latest case, a woman was stopped by a Rela member from entering a Socso office in Penang for “indecent dressing”.
Over-reaction?: A boutique owner was fined for ‘indecent’ attire for wearing shorts at her shop in Kota Baru last Sunday. — Facebook/Others
Fortunately, Socso issued a statement on Friday to set the record straight that there were no instructions given by its management to bar visitors from entering its Penang office because of their attire.
And just two weeks ago, the PAS MP for Kuantan took issue with nurses’ uniform. Almost all our Muslim nurses in hospitals wear slacks and headscarves but to this PAS MP, it is still not enough. He finds their uniforms provocative, weird as it may sound.
I have a reader who sends me critical emails on a regular basis. Nothing wrong with disagreeing voices as discourse, especially constructive criticism, is healthy. No one, especially public figures, is spared from scrutiny.
Like some of my peers, I have lodged police reports when threats were received. And legal letters were dispatched when defamatory remarks were made.
But in most cases, we chose to ignore such critics, who seemed to have plenty of time or need mental help.
In fact, most journalists consider it a hazard of scribes. If we wish to pen critical pieces, then we must also be prepared to come under the microscope.
This person, who hides behind a pseudonym in his emails, would call me all sorts of names but has never taken up my challenge that he rebuts my comments with an intelligent, substantive, and persuasive argument.
Recently, he criticised my article on the subject of nurses’ attire. In his support of the PAS MP, he sent a link which showed that nurses were all covered up in the United Kingdom – except that it was an illustration of nurses during the Victorian age!
Some simple detective work revealed the regular critic to be a chemistry professor at a public university in Kuala Lumpur.
But the point is this. While we have a right to different opinions and it must be respected, it is something else when supposedly learned people holding high positions in institutions send anonymous, cryptic messages with bizarre and even defamatory messages which sounds threatening.
We have come to a point where enforcement officers and the “pak guard” at government buildings carry out their duties without any respect for the rights of non-Muslims under the Federal Constitution.
It has gone to ridiculous lengths, pardon the pun. In many cases, we are not even talking about non-Muslim women wearing mini-skirts or pants but proper skirts, which were deemed improper.
In February, a businesswoman was barred from using the elevator at the Pasir Gudang Municipal Council for improper dressing although the hemline of her dress reached her mid-calf.
“I’m a 60-year-old woman. It does not make sense for me to dress scantily or wear inappropriate clothing in public,” she was quoted as saying in The Star.
These are other cases where common sense was not used. A woman, who was in shorts, wanted to lodge a report about an accident at the Kajang police station on Jan 30. She was told to change into something “more appropriate” before she was allowed entry.
Just two weeks after the controversy, news emerged that a woman was scolded by a medical worker at Hospital Kampar for being “indecently dressed”.
Nobody wants to go to a hospital unless it’s necessary, so it was commendable of the Health Minister to speak out against it, but in many other cases, the superiors seem defensive or protective of their own staff.
Even the guys are not spared.
Seven men wearing shorts in Tanah Merah, Kelantan, were given warning by the Kelantan Islamic Religious Affairs Department in March. Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said that Muslim men should not wear clothes that expose their knees. Shorts are okay but they must cover the knees, he said.
And over in Terengganu, the state government has remained firm on its ban on unisex hair salons. Those who break the gender-segregation rule can be fined between RM500 and RM1,000.
After 66 years of independence, there is rising concern among people that the plural Malaysia that we know of is losing its moderate identity.
While we have grown accustomed to the use of race and religion during elections, the tone this time is much more unsettling.
Non-Muslims have every reason to fear that their rights and welfare are being jeopardised.
Their perception is that not many Muslim national leaders, regardless of their affiliations, are prepared to speak up for the minorities now as the fight for the crucial predominant Malay votes heats up.
The coming state polls in six states may not change the position of the Federal Government but Malaysians in these states have a responsibility to send the right message about the Malaysia that they want to protect.
