After police, Klang council also withdraws approval for German F&B fest

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — The Klang municipal council has said it will have to retract its previous approval for a festival in a Klang mall after police withdrew their approval, asserting that this was unrelated to whether alcoholic beverages would be served.

In explaining why the Centro German F&B Party would not be given permission to go on, council president Datuk Mohamad Yasin Bidin said all large-scale private and public events have to receive support from the police for the purposes of ensuring safety.

“Because police retracted the letter of support, we can only retract the approval previously issued to the organiser. We had in the initial assessment of the application also stated clearly that one of the conditions is to obtain the support of the police.

“In other words, it is a must to obtain police approval, because this is what is required by the rules and is also the norm, for the consideration of safety. I think that this has nothing to do with alcoholic beverages, it is just a commercial activity, because they were unable to obtain the police’s approval, we are also unable to approve,” he was quoted as telling local daily Sin Chew Daily in its evening edition yesterday.

On Friday, Selangor state executive councillor Datuk Teng Chang Khim said the Klang event’s organiser had received a letter from the North Klang police who said they had no objections to the event, adding that the Klang municipal council subsequently decided to allow it to proceed.

On Saturday, however, the North Klang district police chief ACP Mazelan Paijan was reported as saying that no application for the event was received, adding that police will not approve the event as alcoholic beverages will be served there.

Malay Mail Online did not receive a response from Teng yesterday, but he had in a video clip uploaded on his Facebook page urged the North Klang police to be “consistent” instead of alternately saying there was no application made by the event organisers and that the prior approval was retracted.

According to Sin Chew Daily, the North Klang police district has said its previous approval was due to a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the title of the Klang municipal council’s letter regarding the event, and that it was retracting approval.

The North Klang police said the application received was for an entertainment event which would include singing and stage performances, the report said.

Mazelan said the Klang municipal council will have to submit a fresh application for police to consider, adding that the latter will have to first evaluate the event to determine that there are no elements that would endanger society, lead to disturbances and incite sensitivities.

The Klang municipal council had previously approved the event to be held in Klang’s Centro mall from October 12-13, with several conditions including the barring of Muslims from entering the event’s vicinity and the omission of the word “Oktoberfest” and renaming it to become “Centro German F&B Party”.

Leaders from both PAS and Umno have recently voiced their objection to the Klang event.

The Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun had yesterday told Malay Mail Online that he would be issuing a press statement this afternoon on the issue of beer festivals.