BAN ON "SEXY" posters of women showing their hair - in a hair salon? MCA ridicules PAS

In another effort to enforce their conservative policies on others, the PAS state government has once again decided to impose ridiculous restrictions on hair salons in Kota Baru. This is only another attempt by them out of many to ignore and infringe the rights of the non-Muslims living in Kelantan as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

Just when the uproar from the previous attack on hair salons by the Kota Bharu Municipal Council (MPKB) had subsided, we now see them issuing verbal warnings to hair salons in the capital barring them from displaying “sexy” posters which feature women models who did not cover their hair. Many Chinese-owned hair salons have already removed such posters from their establishments out of fear of the MPKB enforcement officers.

This move shows that the PAS state government does not take into concern the plight of the Chinese community and non-Muslims in the state, and this sort of restrictions imposed by them will affect people’s livelihoods, and is strong proof that PAS does not respect the rights of non-Muslims.

PAS’ other restrictions previously

Before this, there have been many other restrictions by PAS against non-Muslim business owners as well as the implementation of policies which goes against women’s rights such as barring hair dressers from attending to customers of the opposite sex, forcing unmarried couples to sit separately in cinemas, banning the sale of licenced lottery tickets and alcohol etc., all of these have had serious impact on the non-Muslim community.

Withdraw ridiculous directives

Thus, I call upon the authorities to immediately amend and abolish such nonsensical restrictions which have severely affected non-Muslims.

If PAS really claims to understand and respect our rights and feelings, I then urge them to remove their directive to the salon operators as per Article 107 (2) of the Local Government Act 1976 to ensure that such local council regulations which affect non-Muslims will never be put into practice again.

Tan Ken Ten

Secretary of MCA Kelantan State Liaison Committee

Chairman of MCA Kota Baru Division