MCA leaders all riled up again, this time over a haircut

MCA has been at loggerheads with Islamic values since it launched an intense campaign to stop PAS’s appeal among non-Muslim voters

(Harakah Daily) – Chinese-only party MCA has continued its current campaign to woo back non-Muslim support, and today it urged DAP to forget about Pakatan Rakyat – all because the Kota Bharu Municipal Council enforced a long-existing rule which disallows unisex services at hair saloons.

The rule, which has been welcomed by many including non-Muslim women and housewives who fear the rampant misuse of unisex hair saloons as prostitution dens, is stated under Section 107(2) of the Local Council Act.

MCA’s central committee member and its publicity bureau’s deputy chairman Loh Seng Kok, in making his conclusion, attempted to link this with everything from “non-Muslim rights” to hudud, and even declared that the ruling proved that PAS “had ambitions to be prime minister [sic]”.

“Although [DAP secretary-general] Lim Guan Eng and PAS claim that PAS’ hardline policies will not pose a threat to the cultural practices of non-Muslims, if DAP does not want to pawn away the rights of the Chinese and non-Muslim communities, DAP should withdraw from the Pakatan coalition and declare firmly that they do not support PAS hudud enactments in order to quell the concerns of the Chinese and non-Muslim communities about the effects of PAS hudud enactments will have on them,” Loh said, though he did not explain whether having females to groom men’s was part of non-Muslims’ “cultural practice”.

Loh went a step further in linking his disagreement over the local council rule to the calls by some delegates at the recent PAS Muktamar for PAS president Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang to be appointed as prime minister of a PR Federal government.

“I challenge the DAP to openly declare that the candidate for the Prime Minister’s post must only be a Muslim. Otherwise, its open support for PAS is none other than to fish for votes,” he added.

In a separate statement, chairman of Penang MCA’s Wanita wing Tan Cheng Liang also joined in the fray, describing MPKB’s hair saloons rule as causing “economic hardship” and “talent loss”.

Tan even hinted that a municipal law should discriminate between Muslims and non-Muslims, and cited PAS’s assurance that it would not enforce Islamic criminal law on non-Muslims despite pressure from UMNO leaders to do so.

“In claiming that non-Muslims are not subject to PAS hudud enactments nor would they affect non-Muslims, PAS is lying absolutely through their teeth. This deception is designed to appear moderate and win non-Muslim ballots. The hair dressers’ case in Kota Bharu is just another example as to how PAS policies causes unjust income loss on non-Muslim entrepreneurs trying to earn an honest living,” Tan said.