Police officers should not be burdened with the added responsibility of first determining the complainant’s dress code, then classifying the severity of complaints before allowing any complainant to lodge a report.
– SUPP Women chief Kho Teck Wan
Fashion and moral policing in this country must stop immediately! The Anwar Administration should put an end to it. Let the task be confined to the religious groups; it’s their domain, not the work of the police who already have their hands full with certain categories of crime spiralling out of control. Overloading the law enforcers with additional unnecessary tasks would only render them ineffective and inefficient.
The same goes to government departments tasked with handling public services. It’s not their sacred and moral duty to interpret the term ‘appropriately dressed’ as what constitutes ‘proper dress’ is subjective. How a person’s dressing is deemed appropriate is entirely subjective. So long as a person entering government premises is not dressed in bikini, body-revealing attire, or bodybuilding posing trunk, government officers should discharge their duties professionally and effectively.
As it is, there have been complaints of officials in certain departments and agencies not carrying out their duties efficiently which will only place the country’s civil service in a bad light. In fact, let me say this: “Prioritise the establishment of a special monitoring committee to police ineffective government employees, and identify the Little Napoleons in the civil service – and weed them out before they do more damage.”
Dress codes should not be their concern; that come under the jurisdiction of the Chief Secretary to the Government whose office should give very clear guidelines to the departments and agencies on what constitutes improper attire – avoid giving out subjective guidelines which are open to interpretation by Little Napoleons and overzealous holier-than-thou fellas.
Officers need to handle dress codes with flexibility, especially in places like police stations and hospitals. They shouldn’t let the issue of attire affect the normal delivery of government services as long as it is not too sexually explicit or disrespectful!
The latest dress code incident involved a man who was turned away from a police station in Nibong Tebal, Penang, to lodge a theft report, just because he was “wearing shorts”.
Here is a report in the Malay Mail of the man attempting to lodge a report after his car was broken into on Dec 7: “… In the incident, the victim lost RM800 in cash and the passport of his wife who is a Chinese citizen, and hurried to the Simpang Ampat police station to make a police report.
“However, the police officer on duty told the man clad in shorts to change into trousers first, but the complainant protested he was wearing shorts to eat out when the emergency occurred and hence rushed to the police station to file a report.
“After relating the incident to the police, the officers urged the man to head to Bukit Tambun police station instead to lodge a report while he was still in shorts without any further hassle.”
Ridiculous, don’t you think so! The law enforcers’ top priority is to take down a report from the complainant; not to determine if he is appropriately attired.
Penang police chief Datuk Khaw Kok Chin quickly defused the situation when he told the press that the priority is to receive a police report and take immediate action to help a victim, and not about appropriate or inappropriate attire when lodging a police report.
He clarified that the ‘order’ for the man to change his trousers was made by “a member of the Police Volunteer Reserve (PVR) who was on duty at the police station’s guard post at the time”.
Khaw assured that investigations were being conducted and that “appropriate action” would be taken.
In another dress code incident in late January this year, a woman in shorts was denied entry to the Kajang police station after she was involved in an accident with a truck in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. Both the woman who was driving an SUV and the truck driver drove to the Batu Sembilan (Cheras) police station to lodge a report but were asked to go to the Kajang police station instead.
Upon reaching the Kajang police station, the police officer refused to entertain her request after seeing through the car window that she wore ‘shorts’. The woman, however, claimed that she was wearing a pair of Bermuda shorts that covered her knees.
When she pleaded with him, telling the officer she would have to travel a distance away to change clothes, he refused to budge. The woman had no choice but to call her sister to bring long pants for her.
Claimed the woman: “It was ridiculous. How can they deny me the right to lodge a report unless I change my clothes? He told me he didn’t care and that even ministers wouldn’t be allowed to enter (if they were dressed that way).”
I really don’t see any logic here. If I were to get into a road accident after a football match and wished to make a police report, I should first change into long pants? Does it make sense? Or if I were robbed while wearing shorts should I rush home and wear my long pants and then only lodge a report? This is too much! Not sure, where the country is heading to.
In the past, there were also reports in Malaya of patients being turned away from hospitals for treatment because they were wearing shorts. And some people visiting government offices in ‘inappropriate attire’ were also prevented from entering the premises by the security personnel.
All these incidents are the result of department or statutory body heads and Little Napoleons giving out unclear guidelines. These officers and ordinary civil servants’ professionalism and empathy are clouded by their excessively conservative mindset.
Back to the two incidents at the police stations. The police should not be encouraging moral policing and discrimination against complainants. Preventing complainants from entering a police station because of what is perceived as inappropriate attire goes against the fundamental rights of Malaysians and the principle of equality in Article 8(1) of the Federal Constitution which states that “everyone is equal before the law and has the right to get equal protection under the law”.
Politicians and religious moralists are also to blame for the confusion. The Anwar Administration needs to ensure these people exercise some restraint when policing people’s fashion or else it will lead to unnecessary misunderstanding and create racial tension in an already highly polarised society.
The public should be given the leeway to dress appropriately and decently, so long as it is not disrespectful for specific occasions. Malaysia is a multiracial and multireligious with different lifestyles and the people have their own sets of dress codes.
We don’t need moral and fashion policing to mess up our lives!
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
