An opposition party submitted a memorandum to the Selangor police today urging them to be fair in issuing permits for ceramah and dinners organised by Barisan Alternatif.

A seven-member delegation led by DAP state chairman Ahmad Nor presented the two-page memorandum to Selangor deputy chief police officer Johar Che Din at the Selangor police headquarters in Shah Alam.

"We urge the authorities to issue a directive to all police stations to cooperate with all political parties who wish to organise ceramah and dinners," said DAP publicity secretary Ronnie Liu.

"Permits should be given without reservations unless the premises is not appropriate or difficult to control," he added.

The 45-minute meeting also discussed several other issues pertaining to crime, gangsterism, drugs and Esctasy addiction.

According to Liu, robbery and theft occur too frequently in Petaling Jaya, Ampang, Kelang and Kajang districts.

"What are the reasons for this high crime rate in the Selangor state?" queried Liu.

"Other than declining moral values, is this situation related to the lack of police personnel and their decreasing work morale?" he added.

Liu said the memorandum also expressed their concern about gangsterism prevalent among the Indian community.

DAP also questioned the action taken to curb the rampant distribution of drugs and Ecstasy pills, noting that discos and entertainment centres were still allowed to operate until the wee hours of the morning.

Video game arcades ban

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock said that the cabinet's stand yesterday to stay with its decision last week to impose a total ban on all video arcades in the country showed that it has again acted in haste.

"It is indeed puzzling that before the cabinet has studied the appeals and problems in-depth, it has chosen to stay with its earlier decision to impose a total ban," said Kerk.

"The least the cabinet should do is to suspend or defer its decision to ban licenced video games outlets until a final decision based on all available information can be made," he added.

Recently, Transport minister and MCA chief Dr Ling Liong Sik said that 99.9 percent of the video game arcades in the country were illegal joints.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reaffirmed the cabinet's stand that action will be taken against all video arcades, whether illegal or not. He also added that all appeals will be channelled to the Local Government and Housing Ministry.

National Unity and Social Development Minister Siti Zaharah said yesterday that the ban on public video games would be discussed at length by the Cabinet Committee on Social Ills today.

"Ling's decision to support the total ban shows that he is simply riding on the current sentiment of anti-gambling machines which are found in the illegal video game arcades," said Kerk.

"He has failed to distinguish between the licenced and the illegal arcades," he added.

Kerk also said that Ling does not understand the different issues of youth being addicted to gambling machines and youth loitering around licenced video arcades that have no gambling machines.

He said that it was unfair for the government to penalise businessmen who have invested millions of ringgit and run legitimate businesses, simply because there are too many illegal video game arcades.

The government should not impose a total ban and close down family amusement centres located at shopping complexes where no gambling machines have been found, he added