Serve public, not judge their attire - Gobind gives cops dressing down

DAP chairperson Gobind Singh Deo has lashed out at the police after a woman, who wanted to lodge a report over a traffic accident, was not allowed into a police station due to her outfit.

“The police have no right to impose upon anyone standards which are unilateral, arbitrary, and/or unreasonable.

“They must instead ensure that all police stations remain accessible to citizens at all times for lodging police reports.

“Moreover, people don’t dress up in anticipation of crime,” said the digital minister in a statement today.

It was reported that the woman and her daughter were stopped from entering the Jasin district police headquarters in Malacca yesterday because her skirt’s hemline was slightly above her knee.

She said she requested an exception but was told she needed to buy long trousers before being allowed inside.

According to the woman, she had to purchase trousers from a nearby mall before she was finally permitted to lodge her police report.

Malacca police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar defended his officers’ action and reminded the public that a dress code applies at all complaint counters, except in emergencies.

He added that an inquiry was also immediately held into the incident.

“We confirm the incident. The dress code follows the circular issued by the chief secretary to the government on improvements to public sector customer relations management, dated Dec 1, 2020,” he was quoted as saying by news reports.

‘Abuse of authority, obstruction’

Unimpressed, Gobind reminded Dzulkhairi that the purpose of a police station is to serve the public, protect citizens, and facilitate the reporting of crimes and accidents as required by law.

He said denying a person the right to file a police report due to their attire was not only an abuse of authority but also an obstruction of justice.

The DAP leader also pointed out that in many instances, the law requires affected parties to lodge a report soon after an incident occurs.

“It is therefore the duty of a police officer to facilitate access of persons to police stations for that purpose.

“The immediate focus of the police officer on duty should have been to assist the victims in recording the details of the incident, and not turning them away as in this case,” Gobind stressed.

The minister urged the inspector-general of police to issue a clear directive to all police stations that no victim or complainant seeking to report an accident or crime be denied their rights based on their attire.

“I will raise this matter with the home minister and ask that all existing standard operating procedures in relation to lodging reports or investigations be reviewed forthwith.

“We must ensure that incidents like these do not happen again,” Gobind added.

‘Blatant disregard of directives’

In a similar tone, Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong slammed the police for denying the woman entry over an attire issue.

He described the action as a “blatant disregard of the directives issued by higher authorities”, referring to an instruction by Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in 2023 for police to accept reports from the public regardless of what the person is wearing.

“The minister’s stance is very clear - when the public is seeking help, nothing should take precedence over the responsibility of receiving a report.

“Unfortunately, frontline enforcement personnel appear not to have heeded this directive, resulting in such absurd incidents recurring repeatedly,” he said.

Khoo, who is also from DAP, said while the original purpose of implementing dress codes in government agencies was understandable, they should only apply to specific formal settings.

According to him, it is unreasonable to impose dress codes on ordinary government counter services such as lodging reports, making payments, or seeking information.

“Given the repeated occurrence of such incidents, I will formally propose amendments to the relevant regulations in the upcoming Parliament sitting to clearly define the scope of dress code guidelines.

“I strongly advocate that: all frontline government counter services - especially filing police reports and seeking emergency assistance - must be completely exempted from dress code requirements, except for formal official events.

“We must ensure that government institutions remain as places that serve the people, not bureaucratic gates that shut them out.”

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