Shahalamistan Beer Raid

From The Star August 5

Trouble brewing in Selangor over beer raid

SHAH ALAM: The brewing beer controversy in Selangor has turned bitter with a PAS state executive council member openly calling for his colleague from the DAP to be removed from chairing the powerful local government portfolio.

Datuk Dr Hassan Ali, also the PAS state chief, yesterday accused Ronnie Liu of meddling in a recent action by the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) to confiscate beer worth RM620 from a 7-Eleven outlet in Section 8 here.

He urged Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim to ensure that the proposed guidelines regulating the sale of beer, expected to be finalised at the end of the month, be made in tandem with provisions in the Syariah Enactment (Selangor) 1995.

Selangor PAS also called for the decision to be implemented in Muslim-majority areas throughout Selangor.

At a press conference yesterday, Dr Hassan said Liu should understand he must not get involved in the operations of local council enforcement officers.

“The actions of the officers are justified based on the sentiments of a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood.

“Our members want him to be removed, and the portfolio given to another exco member, or let the Mentri Besar take over,” he said.

Dr Hassan added that Selangor PAS was pushing for a blanket ban on the sale of beer at 24-hour convenience stores in Muslim-majority areas.

He said the recent action of MBSA enforcement officers must not be questioned, as the seizure was conducted in the interest of Muslims.

When asked about the rights of the Chinese and Indians living in Shah Alam, Dr Hassan said the non-Muslims could easily buy their beer from the many shops outside Muslim-majority areas.

“Our aim is to curb the consumption of beer among Muslims as we have been informed that drinking among schoolchildren and undergraduates is getting out of hand.

“It has come to this because Barisan Nasional did not tackle the problem earlier,” claimed Dr Hassan.

In an immediate reaction, Liu claimed that the beer issue was used to sabotage his credibility and integrity as well as to humiliate him in his capacity as the local government portfolio chairman.

“The seizure of the beer was an over-enthusiastic action on the part of the MBSA licensing director.

“As the exco member in charge of the local government portfolio, I have the right to question the actions of the local authorities. Selangor PAS cannot stop that.

“No local authority can be bigger than the state executive council,” he told a press conference at the State Secretariat yesterday.

MBSA mayor Datuk Mazalan Md Noor said the outlet operator had been urged to cooperate and not sell beer as Muslims were uneasy over the matter, with a surau located only a mere 50m away.

“Nearby residents and councillors had urged MBSA to take action because schoolchildren were also drinking beer.

“We understand we do not have laws to stop the selling of beer, but we asked the operator to cooperate,” said Mazalan, who appeared at the press conference together with Liu.

He added that the 100-odd convenience stores from Section 1 to 24 in Shah Alam had been issued with letters urging them to stop selling alcoholic beverages, as the outlets were in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods.

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Take lar those beers. Actually Beer-Drinkers hardly give a damn about buying from those areas.

My sympathy will goes to the shopowners who normally has outstation (Klang, Subang, PJ) clients who stopped by these stores to stock up some supplies.

Do you think Giant and Tesco Shah Alam relies on local market catchment alone (Shah Alam residents)?

Looks like they have to remove their beer shelves (I think, quite a major resetting in one local section if they wanna remove all the Non-Halal shelves altogether).

Shah Alam has 95% plus Malay/Muslims population. But is it true that the residents there are the biggest consumer of those beers? Even if only 1 drink out of 10,000. Someone can make any claims.
There are probably 20 times as high in other areas.

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Okay. Assuming they finally managed to conclude that Shah Alam is zoned as "Malay Muslim Majority" area.
Aren't the entire Malaysia, Muslim Majority???? There aren't many places in the whole Malaysia that has Non-Malay Majority.
If the zoning applies, we all can only buy beers from Bukit Bintang, Old Klang Road and Seputeh (just to name those few areas).

Okay. Assuming that we are still allowed to zone Shah Alam as Malay-Muslim Majority.
What happen if Non-Muslim drives by Federal Highway with beers crossing Shah Alam zones (from Klang to KL) and got stopped by JAIS enforcers?
Would the beers gets confiscated???

The line is very fine here.

How do they really plan to zone?? And how do they really plan to enforce it?

Even Jesus Christ shared his wines.

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Sugar and Alcohol has the same molecular components:- Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen.
They are convertible to each other.

If they want to ban alcohol, they should also ban sugar.
There are more people dying from sugar consumption than alcohol.

As I said before, if the zoning applies, almost the entire Malaysia will be Beer free.
Then how to PARTY???

hehehehehhee. Cheers to beer drinkers (tho I kinda stopped drinking it).
Those who don't drink, it's ok. You can always get the same damages from overconsumption of sugar.