Law should be enacted to prevent discrimination in hotel industry – Nazri

KUALA LUMPUR: The Tourism and Culture Ministry plans to look into formulating a new act to enable stern action be taken against discriminatory actions in the hotel industry, especially those which are against the Federal Constitution.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said currently, the existing act under the ministry had no such provision.

“If a new act is created, stating that there should be no such discrimination, then action can be taken against individuals who commit the offence. At this point, the existing act under my ministry has no such provision.

“Therefore, if needed, we can discuss this matter towards formulating a new act to enable action to be taken against any individual or misdeed that is against the Federal Constitution,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

He was replying to a supplementary question from Anuar Abd Manap ( BN-Sekijang) on the kind of action that could be taken against hotels implementing such a discriminatory standard operating procedure and whether the ministry planned to introduce a special ruling in tackling the issue.

Mohamed Nazri also suggested that hotels streamline their frontline staff uniforms in line with the religious requirements and cultural norms of all the communities to avoid elements of discrimination.

“It’s not happening just to Muslims; I think frontline staff in sari or wearing the Sikh turban may face the same issue. We have never questioned this. Perhaps is their (hotels) policy not to allow the wearing of sari by staff and forcing them to wear skirts instead.

“We are a multiracial country, so what’s wrong with making the sari, turban and tudung bearing the hotel logo as part of the staff uniforms. That should be done,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff ( PAS- Rantau Panjang). — Bernama