In a new development on the Crackhouse Comedy Club saga, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng revealed that the club’s owner Rizal Van Geyzel might not be permanently blacklisted from registering a business licence in the capital.
Citing an unnamed source, he said the Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) licensing committee recommended that Rizal only be banned from doing so for one year.
This contradicts media reports quoting Deputy Federal Territories Minister Jalaluddin Alias’ as saying that Rizal (above) has been blacklisted “for life”.
Lim demanded that Jalaluddin explain his motives for issuing such a statement.
“Did he make the announcement of his own accord, contrary to the DBKL licensing committee’s recommendation? If so, what was his motive?” Lim asked in a statement.
The MP further called on Jalaluddin to clarify the specific law that allows for permanent bans on individuals from registering businesses.
“The deputy minister is obliged to enlighten the public by clarifying which specific provisions of the law empowered him to impose life sentences such as the one preventing Rizal from registering any businesses in the city, particularly because entertainment licences are granted to companies and not individuals.
“Is the deputy minister aware that he has no power to issue such a personal ban on Rizal?
“One might scoff at the drabness of my inquiry, but beware - silence on the deputy minister’s behalf could only be interpreted as an admission to the carelessness with which he dealt with the matter,” Lim added.
On Wednesday, Jalaluddin announced that DBKL also decided to revoke the comedy club’s licence effective July 30.
This led to the club’s owners, Rizal and Shankar R Santhiram, sending a letter of demand (LOD) to Kuala Lumpur mayor Mahadi Che Ngah, seeking clarification on whether Jalaluddin’s statements were true.
The duo claimed that they had not received any official notice from DBKL on the matter.
They demanded an official notice be made within 48 hours from the time of the LOD, failing which will result in them seeking relief from the High Court.
Controversial performance
Crackhouse came under heavy scrutiny recently over a controversial performance that touched on Islam, which saw a woman and her boyfriend getting arrested.
Rizal later landed in hot water when several old videos of his comedy performances resurfaced. He was arrested by the police on July 14 and held on remand.
He is facing three charges under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA), to which he pleaded not guilty.
Several days after, the comedy club was vandalised, and Rizal received a death threat, which was sent to his wife.
The police believed the two incidents were connected. - Mkini
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