NGOS ASK SULTAN TO INTERVENE
10 groups send memo to Selangor palace to stop beer festival from being held in the state
FOURTEEN people representing 10 non-governmental organisations submitted a memorandum to the Selangor palace yesterday in a bid to stop a beer festival in the state. The group sought Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s intervention to prevent the “Better Beer Festival 2017” from being held in the state, should the organisers decide to change the venue.
This comes after the organisers’ application to hold the event on Oct 6 and 7 at Publika Shopping Gallery in Kuala Lumpur was rejected by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
The group’s spokesman, Nazilah Idris, said the NGOs were worried that the organisers of the craft beer drinking fest would choose Selangor to hold the event.
“Our protest and submission of the memorandum to the Selangor palace today (yesterday) is a warning to the organisers not to hold the event in the state.
“They planned to do it in KL, but were denied by DBKL. We don’t want them to come here. We are worried that they might do so because a state exco member had said that the state is open to such festivals. A Selangor lawmaker had even ridiculed protests against the event,” she said.
Nazilah is the chairman of the Selangor Community Complaints Bureau.
1Malaysia NGOs Coalition president Nazli Aziz Yeop said holding such festivals openly in public was disrespectful to Islam and the Malay community.
He said the NGOs were saddened that some Muslim politicians supported such events, saying that they had gone against their own religion, which prohibits Muslims from taking part in activities involving the consumption of alcohol.
The group’s memorandum was received by Sultan Sharafuddin’s bodyguard, Sergeant Major Aznan Din, at the entrance of Istana Kayangan here.
He will forward the document to the sultan’s senior private secretary, Datuk Mohamad Munir Bani.