MB questions PAS Youth’s liquor ban call

(The Star) ALOR SETAR: Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak has questioned the PAS Youth’s call for a ban on the sale of alcohol in Muslim-majority areas in the Pakatan Rakyat-held states and Perak.

He said that each state had its own guidelines on the sale of alcohol.

“I do not know what is their locus standi for preparing such guidelines for a state government,” he asked when met after the swearing in of Kulim assemblyman Lim Soo Nee as state executive council member yesterday.

Lim replaces Lunas assemblyman Mohd Radzhi Salleh who was sacked from the council after he become an independent assemblyman.

Azizan was commenting on a statement made by the wing’s deputy chief, Azman Shapawi Abd Rani, who was reported as saying that they would formulate such a proposal after holding meetings and roundtable discussions in Selangor, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Perak.

State Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang said in a statement that the guidelines would indirectly lead to further discrimination bet-ween the Muslim majority and non-Muslim majority areas in such states.

In George Town, State DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the proposal should have been be brought up at Pakatan leadership meetings before taking it to the media.

“We should be able to discuss any proposal that touches on race, religion or culture,” he said.

However, Chow, a state executive councillor, said the proposal was not feasible here as there was no policy on the ban of liquor in Penang.

Permatang Berangan assemblyman Shah-budin Yahya, who is Penang Islamic Religious Council president, said the ban should only be imposed on Muslims in Muslim-majority areas.

“Each community has a different perception and outlook on the consumption of liquor. Thus, the ban should not be enforced in Muslim-majority areas as there are other communities living in those areas too, and the consumption of liquor depends on the acceptance of the each community”.