COMMENT | The seventies saw the proliferation of pinball parlours and massage centres in Petaling Jaya. Some were licenced but most were operating illegally.

The police chief in 1977, Anthony Petrus, immediately summoned senior officers from the then Petaling Jaya Municipality and ordered them to close all unlicensed outlets.

His directive was on these lines: “They are all linked to drugs and gangsters. If you don’t close them down, the police will! When the licences of those legal ones expire, don’t renew them. No more licences for pubs on the upper floors. If there is any trouble, it will be disastrous...”