KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Selangor government should be blamed for the six drug-related deaths at the Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA), Barisan Nasional (BN) Kajang by-election candidate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun has said.
Chew claimed the deaths could have been avoided had the state government adopted more “effective” policies to tackle existing “social problems”, and attempted to link the drug deaths with the alleged rise of massage parlours and illegal cyber cafes in Selangor since PR took over in 2008.
The MCA vice-president, however, did not show how having massage parlours and cyber cafes would cause more people to take drugs.
“When BN was the Selangor state government in 2006, we decided to freeze all applications for massage parlours in the state.
“However, after Pakatan took over the state’s administration, the number of massage parlours flew drastically from 800 to 3,200,” she said in a statement today, adding that based on a 2010 report by The Star, the number of illegal cyber cafes in Selangor outnumbered the licensed cyber cafes 3 to 1, with 600 licenced cyber cafes compared to 1,800 illegal ones.
The FMFA event, held at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, was an event sanctioned by the federal government, and not Selangor.
According to media reports, six Malaysians aged between 21 and 28 are suspected to have died after taking a new party drug at the FMFA event last weekend.
Fourteen people, mainly Singaporeans, were also admitted to hospital after taking the party drug at the festival.
Police arrested 13 Malaysians and 16 foreigners for drug-related offences during the festival.
