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Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Gerakan wants ban revoked officially

Its Youth chief believes only the state executive council can decide on this matter and not PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

ALOR SETAR: The PAS-led Kedah government has not officially revoked the blanket Ramadan ban on entertainment outlets in the state, as many would have believed.

Kedah Gerakan Youth wing chief Tan Keng Liang wants the state executive council to do just that in its weekly meeting today.

Tan also wants the state government to revoke the ban without any unfair conditions attached.

“We are waiting to see whether the state executive council tomorrow will revoke the ban officially without any conditions.

“It will be unfair for the state government to impose conditions on the entertainment outlet operators,” he told FMT yesterday.

Tan said many have got it wrong that the state government had revoked the ban on the entertainment outlets, albeit with certain conditions.

However, cyber cafes, cinema halls and snooker centres are exempted from the ban.

The ban, imposed by the Pakatan Rakyat Kedah government last Wednesday, was said to have been revoked on Sunday by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, not Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak.

Tan said Azizan only gave some assurance to the Kedah Chinese Assembly Hall leaders on Saturday that the state government would consider lifting the ban with certain conditions imposed.

The assembly hall leaders have met Azizan at the Menteri Besar’s official residence in Mentaloon to submit a memorandum calling on the state government to revoke the ban unconditionally.

It is learnt that Azizan has promised the Chinese community leaders that the state secretariat officials would discuss the issue with entertainment outlet operators by Monday.

But Tan said as of last midnight, no meeting was held as promised by Azizan.
“It seems the Kedah government has yet to decide to revoke the blanket ban,” he added.

Abdul Hadi has said the ban applies only to Muslims and that entertainment outlet operators had agreed to the move.

He also said the operators were warned they risked losing their licences if they were found to have allowed Muslims to patronise their outlets.

Islamic officials would enforce the rule across the state, monitoring its more than 300 bars, discos, karaoke lounges and other clubs.

However, according to Tan, the revocation can only be done by the state government, and not Abdul Hadi.
He warned of legal action if the state government does not revoke the ban.

Today’s state executive council meeting in Alor Setar’s Wisma Darulaman will be the D-Day for the entertainment outlet operators.

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