SIBU: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) has been urged not to enforce a dress code for the public when going to JPJ to deal with matters.
Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) Political Education Bureau director Irene Chang said she had received a few complaints recently regarding people being told to go back by the security guard to change into long pants and shirts with long sleeves before they were allowed entry to Sibu JPJ.
“Two of these complainants were professional ladies who are quite senior in their respective professions. Both were wearing their normal professional dress with short sleeves and a skirt that reached down to below their knees. Both were stopped at the main door and told to go home to change their attire.
“The second lady called me immediately after being told by the security guard that her dress was inappropriate, despite the fact that it was a normal office dress with short sleeves that fully covered her upper arms and a skirt that reached down to below the knees.
“The lady said that she felt so humiliated after she was publicly refused entry in front of so many people,” Chang stated in a press statement here on Yesterday (Oct 19).
The former Bukit Assek assemblywoman said another complainant was from a man who took the day off from work to attend to a matter at JPJ.
She said he wore a presentable three-quarter shorts and was refused entry and told to go back to change into long pants.
While she understands that JPJ has its own dress code guidelines, Chang pointed out that these guidelines should not be used to impose a mandatory rule on the public on how to dress in order to have access to government services.
At the most, she said these guidelines should only serve as a request for people to follow the dress code, which include that only shoes and not slippers should be worn.
She said every public service office or department is a public premises that every citizen had the right to enter.
“Therefore, there should be no discrimination of services simply because of their personal dress code. As long as a person is dressed decently and whether or not he or she is wearing shoes or slippers, he or she should not be denied the government services which he or she is entitled to.
“Furthermore, it has to be known that to demand for people to be dressed in a certain way before being allowed access to government services is an infringement of a person’s right to freedom of expression as provided under the Federal Constitution,” Chang, who is a lawyer by profession, added.
