PARLIAMENT The Road Transport Department (RTD) came under fire from PAS parliamentarian for Kota Bahru Takiyuddin Hassan today for going overboard by compelling a customer to wear a sarong - or be denied service.

"That was too much," Takiyuddin, who is PAS assistant secretary-general, said in Parliament.

"In Kelantan, we never give women sarong to wear," he said, referring to members of the public who turn up at local councils in the state to deal with their routine affairs.

“The dress code practised by the local authority is just to 'encourage' Muslim women to cover their aurat, while non-Muslim women are expected to be dressed decently according to their standard,” Takiyuddin  ( photo ) said.

"We encourage the Muslim women to cover their aurat. This is not even a must.

"As for non-Muslim women, they can wear decent dressing. We don't even decide the definition of decent dressing," he said.

Despite criticising RTD for offering the sarong, the PAS leader saw no problem with the department's dress code guidelines.

This isn't an Islamisation trend in government department, but just merely a department's dress code, Takiyuddin said in reference to a Facebook post in which netizen Suzanne G L Tan claimed she was asked to wear a sarong to cover her short skirt.

This was when Tan went to the RTD office to transfer her car's ownership. She did not state in her posting when this was, or where the office is located.

"I had to go to JPJ personally to sign the transfer form for the car I sold. That in itself is already a pain," Tan wrote and also posted pictures of herself in her skirt and wearing the sarong.

'This is ridiculous and uncalled for'

Asked to comment on this, Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) said: "This is ridiculous and uncalled for. I have never heard it happened in JPJ."

He blamed the government, particularly the transport ministry for not having a policy to restrict the government agencies from imposing a stringent dress code.

"The woman wasn't even scantily clad, she was decent. Do we need to cover our body from head to toe before marching into government offices for business?" Pua ( photo ) asked.