PETALING JAYA: An MCA leader has urged Putrajaya to draft a federal law to stop local authorities from acting as moral police after a fine was imposed on the owner of a Kelantan hair salon.
On July 9, the Kota Bharu Municipal Council (MPKB) fined a hair salon owner RM100 for allowing a female worker to cut the hair of a Muslim male customer.
MCA vice-president Ti Lian Ker acknowledged that state governments and local councils had the right to draft their own by-laws to govern traders. However, he said, these by-laws should not contravene federal laws, particularly the Federal Constitution.
“Thus, a federal law must be quickly effected to curtail the abuses of these local councils as the federal law will prevail,” he said in a statement.
Ti, a senator, also urged local government development minister Nga Kor Ming to take action to protect the interests and liberties of non-Muslims, adding that this was enshrined under Articles 5(1) and 10(1a) of the Federal Constitution.
“Will Nga propose or amend federal legislation to spell out what is ‘decent’ or ‘indecent’, or pass provisions of law to protect the rights and liberties of these traders from local government authorities?”
Earlier today, Nga urged MPKB to consider amending certain local council by-laws to prevent instances of non-Muslims running afoul of them.
The minister said he had asked local government department director-general Noor Ihsan to hold discussions with Kota Bharu mayor Rosnazli Amin to see if it was possible to amend any of the council’s by-laws.
Previously, Nga had urged MPKB to retract a fine imposed on a 35-year-old shop owner for wearing “indecent clothing”.
Rosnazli had said the woman committed an offence under Section 34(2)(b) of the Business and Industrial Trade By-Laws 2019, which states that non-Muslim business owners and their non-Muslim employees must wear “decent clothes”. - FMT
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