Khairy slams ruling on dress code
(The Star) – PAS is encroaching upon the rights of non-Muslims with the latest ruling by Alor Setar City Council requiring them to be “decently attired” on billboards, says Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaludin.
He questioned the council’s need to impose more conditions when the existing ruling for models on billboards would surely have stipulated similar requirements.
“I’m sure that in other parts of Malaysia, models need to be appropriately dressed for billboard advertisements.
“Why does the council need to have more rulings?
“This shows that PAS is encroaching upon the rights of non-Muslims and it is alarming,” he said here yesterday.
The council has come under fire for following Kelantan in implementing a ruling that requires non-Muslim models to be “decently attired” on billboards.
A newspaper quoted mayor Datuk Mat Noh Ahmad as saying that those who flouted the rule would be slapped with a RM300 fine and have their billboards removed.
Khairy said the ruling was also “vague” as it did not state what it considered to be “decently attired”.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said PAS-led state government policies were starting to affect the non-Muslims.
“They say the Chinese should only be worried about how they do business. So, look at this policy which has already affected Chinese businesses.
“Every time they create policies like these, the first to be affected are the Chinese,” he said in Wisma MCA, adding that decent attire was a “subjective matter”.
“For example, boys these days have spiky hair but my hair points downwards. Spiky hair may seem indecent to certain people.
“The government should not be involved in this kind of business. It is totally wrong,” he said.
In ALOR SETAR, the city council denied coming up with the ruling.
Clarifying that he had never stated that those flouting the ruling would be fined RM300 and have their billboards removed, Mat Noh said: “I only advised the advertisers to have female Muslim models wear the tudung.
“For non-Muslim models, their attire displayed on billboards should be appropriate.”
He said “appropriate” meant that the clothes should not be revealing.
