.jpg "Penang Island City Council enforcement officers conduct spotchecks on pubs and eateries in George Town March 19, 2020. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Sayuti Zainudinnn")
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — The government order for nightclubs to remain closed during the conditional movement control order (CMCO) is just a temporary measure to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading, and is not meant to be permanent as long as standard operating procedures (SOPs) are complied with, a minister has said.
Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, who is the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (special functions), yesterday explained the government’s decision to not allow nightclubs to operate in Malaysia for now amid the Covid-19 pandemic, citing the experience in other countries to justify this decision.
“The government’s action in closing nightclubs throughout the CMCO is the appropriate response to tackling the problem of Covid-19 spreading.
“However, the government cannot permanently close (menutup terus) nightclubs as long as there is compliance with the SOP set,” Redzuan said in a written parliamentary reply yesterday.
Redzuan was responding to Umno’s Machang MP Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub, who had asked the prime minister to state how far the closure of nightclubs during the CMCO had helped to curb the spread of Covid-19 and social problems in the society, as well as whether the government was prepared to menutup terus or permanently close down such clubs.
Even as almost all businesses have been allowed to resume operations again as the country moved from the strict movement control order (MCO) to more ‘relaxed’ phases including the CMCO, nightclubs continue to be barred from reopening.
In the same parliamentary reply, Redzuan explained that the temporary closure of nightclubs during the CMCO is a “pre-emptive move” against the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
“This move was also carried out first in countries abroad such as countries in Europe. The trend of the disease spreading again was also detected in South Korea due to the nightclub cluster because of the difficulty in ensuring physical distancing in such places.
“As we all know, activities in nightclubs are activities that cannot be controlled and it is difficult to ensure physical distancing among visitors,” the Alor Gajah MP from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia said.
Noting that the local authorities are responsible for revoking the licence of premises upon failure to comply with orders issued by the government, Redzuan said the police have also been working with local authorities to take stern action against entertainment outlets that operate beyond the permitted time.
In the same parliamentary reply, Redzuan also provided police statistics from January 1 to November 1 this year on Ops Noda or crackdown on entertainment outlets that flouted the law, with 6,851 individuals arrested after 1,386 successful raids nationwide.
Slightly more than a third of such arrests were made in Selangor, with the next two highest arrests recorded in Kuala Lumpur and Johor. The arrests in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur collectively make up about 60 per cent of the 6,851 arrests in the country during the 10-month period.
As for the number of entertainment outlets found operating without a licence, there were 603 such outlets found in Malaysia from January 1 to November 1.
The highest numbers were found in Kuala Lumpur at 203, followed by Johor at 180 and Selangor at 56. Collectively, these three areas accounted for about 73 per cent of the total unlicensed outlets found nationwide during this period.
During the same period, 148 applications were made nationwide to revoke the licences of entertainment outlets which had breached conditions of their licences, with such applications recorded only in Kuala Lumpur (84), Johor (59) and Melaka (4).
As for the total of applications actually approved to cancel licences and for action to be taken, there were only four nationwide during this period, and all located in Johor, according to the police data.
According to police data, Perlis and Kelantan were the only two states to have recorded zero figures in every category, including arrests, raids, entertainment outlets found to have operated without a licence, or applications to revoke the licence of entertainment outlets.
The highest numbers of raids during this year’s Ops Noda were recorded in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Johor, accounting for about 77 per cent of raids nationwide.
