Press Statement
by DAP National Organizing Secretary and Member of Parliament for Cheras, Tan Kok Wai
in Petaling Jaya
on 20^th April 2002

 Terengganu State Government Should Reconsider Separate Pools Ruling

DAP urges the PAS-led Terengganu State Government to immediately reconsider and drop its plan to impose dress code for tourist and new rulings for new hotels to build separate swimming pools for men and women. DAP views this new ruling as unfair and insensitive to the rights of non-Muslims and totally unnecessary as it will further strengthen the impression of PAS among non-Muslims of being fundamentalist, anti-modernity and intolerant.

The State Government must realize that Terengganu is a famous tourist destination especially for its island resorts and beautiful beaches among local and foreign tourists. The new rulings will definitely give a negative image to foreign tourists for being conservative and will cause unnecessary inconvenience to them. Many newly-wed couples go to these islands for their honeymoon and family members for their family vacations. Swimming is one of the most common activities in islands resorts and separating men and women with different swimming pools by force is akin to disallowing them to have fun together. If the State Government can impose such a ruling for swimming pools, are they going to implement a similar ruling for beaches by dividing it for men and women? This is downright ridiculous! 

Imposing dress code for tourists including the ban on bikinis is a step in the direction of violating individual rights, insensitive to women and further imposing the Islamic way of life on non-Muslims in the state. This is definitely not a healthy development for a multi-racial and multi-religious society in Malaysia. The way of dressing must be a personal choice and it’s the right and moral authority of individuals to dress according to their own choice. The blame on women for their way of dressing as the reason for sexual harassments and rape cases is unfair to women. It’s the responsibility of the government to educate the society and strengthen moral values among men in order to control their sexual desire and respect women. This process must start from a young age. 

Therefore, DAP urges the PAS Terengganu Government to be more liberal and forward-looking in governing and developing the state. They should know that imposing controversial rulings that will affect the rights of non-Muslims such as this will further give opportunity to Barisan Nasional to paint them as an Islamic-fundamentalist party. In view of this, DAP calls upon the other 2 component parties in the Barisan Alternatif, namely Parti Keadilan Nasional and Parti Rakyat Malaysia, to persuade PAS to review the ruling.