KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 ― The Rela officer responsible for making a woman don a sarong to receive service at a Road Transport Department (RTD) office has been awarded a “letter of appreciation” as a morale booster.
According to English daily The Star, Rela director-general Lukeman Saaid said this was because officer Tazidamiza Ismail had come under heavy fire after the June 9 incident.
“She received a lot of flak over incident though she was only doing the job,” he was quoted telling reporters at a Home Ministry buka puasa function yesterday.
“Rela personnel are supposed to perform their duties according to the standard operating procedure of the department they are assigned to,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tazidamiza, who was posted as a security guard at the Wangsa Maju RTD branch at the time of the incident, said such sexily-dressed women were common encounters during her stint.
She said she would spot at least one every day and would always make them put on the sarong, which she keeps with her at all times.
“I keep a batik sarong with me for the women who dress sexily. Most of the time, they just wear the sarong and do what they came to do,” she was quoted telling reporters.
Asked to comment the incident that went viral on social media, Tazidamiza said her accuser had not kicked up a fuss when she was made to wear the sarong.
“She just wore the sarong and went to the counter. About an hour later, some of the JPJ staff told me that the incident had been uploaded on social media,” she was quoted saying, referring to the RTD by its Bahasa Malaysia initials.
In light of the incident, Tazidamiza has since requested for a transfer from the Wangsa Maju RTD office.
The 41-year-old officer had triggered public uproar on social media earlier this month after the middle-aged ethnic Chinese woman posted about the incident online.
According to Suzanna G. L. Tan, she was made to wear a sarong, which she described as a “bag”, to cover up her legs when seeking service at the RTD office.
Venting her frustration on Facebook, the woman included pictures of her attire — a pink blouse and a pink skirt ending several inches above her knees — that were deemed inappropriate according to the department's dress code.
The RTD immediately came under heavy criticism from lawmakers and other civil society groups who questioned if it is a sign of creeping Islamisation in the civil service.
After the incident, RTD published its dress code online, which stipulates that visitors prohibited from wearing short skirts, shorts, and sleeveless tops at its offices.
Since then, there have been at least two other similar incidents that have earned attention online.
On Monday, Klang DAP MP Charles Santiago said a New Straits Times reporter named C. Premananthini and a Pandamaran resident named Tan Lee Fong had come to the State Secretariat building in Shah Alam, Selangor for his press conference, but the security guards barred them entry unless they put on the sarongs.
Yesterday, a woman claimed she was forced to borrow a towel to cover up her legs before she was allowed to visit a patient who had been warded at the hospital, in the incident which reportedly took place on June 16.
The woman who goes by the moniker Nisha Daddygal added that the hospital’s security personnel had told her that the no-shorts policy came directly from the Ministry of Health.
In the pictures that accompanied her post, the woman was seen wearing a loose T-shirt and a pair of black shorts.
