CUEPACS misses the point I made about dress code imposed by departmental heads and failed to recognize the problem on the ground.
Never in my media statement did I advocate people not to be decently dressed when going to government departments. Generally, all of us are dressed decently and some of us are dressed up very smartly when meeting government officers.
The issue is about denying service to those who purportedly failed to comply with the dress code set by the departments.
I have received a complaint from a lady lawyer whose attire is acceptable in the courts but denied entry to an education department on the ground her knee length skirt is not acceptable.
A local television reporter has complained she was denied entry into a road transport department to renew her road tax on the ground she wore a T-shirt and a knee length skirt.
An old man has to go back home 15km away to change his shorts into long pants before he was allowed into a local government office to make some payments. Above cases have been brought to my attention and I believe there are many more such cases round the country.
CUEPACS President, Dato’ Haji Adman Mat obviously does not know the problem on the ground when he said civil servants will use their discretion to assess the situation before denying anyone services for failing to comply with the dress code. In all the above cases I cited they were denied entry at the guard house! How can the civil servants make the assessment?
More importantly, as civil servants they should be exemplary in observing and respecting the law. As explained in my earlier media statement, cabinet ministers and civil servants derived their powers from the laws passed by Parliament. Regulations or rules made by Ministers are illegal and void if they are outside the scope of powers (ultra vires) conferred by the Act of Parliament. There is no law giving government officers power to prescribe dress code for the public before services can be rendered to them.
A fortiori (all the more) rules made by government officers requiring the public to comply with certain attire before services can be rendered to them are illegal and void. Civil servants cannot be allowed to do things that are illegal. Dress code can be given as an advisory and but not as a rule.