KUALA LUMPUR – Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) recent renewal of 1,519 liquor licences had gone through thorough reviews with the police and the Customs Department involved, DBKL’s excise licensing board member Kasthuri Patto said.
The large number of approved renewals was due to the fact that the excise licensing board had not met for a year, she said in a statement today to respond to protests from Federal Territory PAS Youth over the matter.
The meeting on November 23 was called to decide on approvals and rejections for a backlog of renewal applications and new applications after a hiatus of a year. The approvals are for the sale of hard liquor at all convenience stores, grocery stores, and Chinese medicine halls.
“The meeting was attended by representatives from the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, the Royal Malaysia Police and internal agencies of DBKL including the health and environment department.
“All applications for renewal had been individually vetted and given the ‘all clear’ by the Customs Department, the police, internal agencies and finally put to a vote by the board members. There was no blanket ‘okay’ and all concerns raised were clarified and explained.
“This means that all renewal applications had gone through thorough reviews by internal DBKL agencies, enforcement agencies like police and Customs and the board members according to existing guidelines,” Kasthuri said.
By following existing guidelines, this means that the sale of alcohol to non-Muslims is restricted, and sales are also restricted by time limits, she stressed.
With all guidelines followed, Kasthuri slammed Federal Territory PAS Youth for “stirring a non-issue into an issue”.
“Non-Muslims decide for themselves if they want to consume alcohol and sellers must be bound by their responsibility to adhere to existing laws and guidelines in place. In addition, liquor licences are a source of revenue to DBKL.
“Federal Territory PAS Youth must learn to live together in harmony and to learn to respect differences of cultures and beliefs and in this context, the right to choose.
“To Federal Territory PAS Youth: the real enemy here is sheer ignorance, oblivion and shallowness – not alcohol and liquor,” she said.
Federal Territory PAS Youth information chief Abdul Razak Ramli in a statement yesterday criticised the government for ending the ban, imposed in November 2021 on sundry shops, convenience stores and traditional Chinese medicine halls.
He called the decision “disappointing”, claiming it would lead to more social problems.
The ban in 2021 took place under the federal administration of Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
While hard liquor sales were banned from the shops mentioned, beer was still allowed but only until 9pm.
Chinese media Sin Chew recently reported that the DBKL excise licensing board meeting on November 23 decided to do away with the ban on liquor sales by those stores. – December 2, 2023