Kedah now aiming for an ‘entertainment-free state’ by forcing businesses to pay a one-year licence fee

Press Statement by MCA Young Professional Bureau Chairman Datuk Chua Tee Yong
Kedah now aiming for an ‘entertainment-free state’ by forcing businesses to pay a one-year licence fee

MCA Young Professionals Bureau strongly condemns the Kedah state government for trying to change the rules for payment of entertainment licences by making businesses pay the monthly fees one year in advance, instead of the original payment i.e. monthly payment as reported by Guangming and Oriental Daily. This causes financial burden for business in the entertainment industry.
The Kedah state government is using these kinds of policies in an indirect attempt to turn Kedah into a model hardline state under PAS. Forcing businesses to pay the entire year’s cost at one go will create problems for existing businesses as well as deter others from going into the entertainment industry.
Currently, the Kedah state government has ordered that beginning from 2012, all entertainment licences, including table tennis and karaoke classes, must pay a one-year licence fee which can range from the lowest amount of RM600 to a maximum of RM15,000. Restrictions imposed on business hours, forcing the entertainment outlets to operate only between 7.00 pm to 1.00 am as well as to close their shops every Thursday, also burdens the businesses even more.
This new policy by the state government is likely to create a cash-flow problem, whereby the cost will most likely be passed onto the consumers, ultimately creating a vicious economic cycle. Therefore, the Kedah state government led by PAS should allow entertainment outlets to pay the entertainment fees by monthly installments.

DAP and PKR in Kedah – what say you?
Does DAP and PKR support this new regulation by the Kedah PAS administration because usually when they implementsany policy, DAP and PKR are usually clueless despite PKR having its elected representatives sitting in the Kedah exco.
If DAP and PKR state assembly were in the know, why didn’t they raise these issues up during state assembly sittings or state exco meetings ?

Typical PAS policy back-pedaling
As usual, when PAS formulates and implements a new policy which is meant to enforce Islamic policies onto the public, and when it is exposed by the media, they will quickly withdraw the policy. This is actually a method for them to test the public’s reactions to see if they can catch the public off guard, and if there is no strong reaction against their policy they will then use the same method to impose Islamic policies onto non-Muslims.

The Kedah state government has also previously denied turning Kulim into a non-alcohol district, by claiming that it was the district officer’s own idea. But then why has no official from the Kulim District Office been punished? This shows that PAS negating responsibility while attempting to turn the state’s policies to be ultra-conservative.