A SENIOR lawyer has called for the Royal Malaysian Police to allow discretionary powers to be adopted at the rank-and-file levels of the force.
This follows an incident when two women were denied entry into a police facility at Melaka on grounds that they were using indecent clothing.
S. Raveentharan said that the police should not make life difficult for the public wanting to lodge police reports, especially after an accident or emergency.
To lodge a report is a constitutional right and the police must be both pragmatic and sensitive to the needs of the people.
While what is deemed as an appropriate dress code should be observed, there are times when people are dressed casually when heading to a shop or back to their homes when they are involved in an accident.
And in the age of global warming, many people chose to wear light clothing to cope with the heat wave.
They also need to lodge a report based on the law, especially for insurance claims but to make it difficult just because they are wearing a short skirt is not the duty of the police, said Raveentharan, who is also a former PKR deputy secretary-general.
"And how short is short. Were they semi-nude. I think majority of Malaysians should be clad in decent attire when they are out in public. It is just that it can be subjective for some quarters to interpret," he said.
"We shouldn't be moral policing, we should be upholding the rule of law only. Morality is also subjective," said Raveentharan.
He said that there are more important issues which the police should be pursing from corruption to narcotics and murder investigations rather than becoming preoccupied with dress codes.
Raveentharan said that all government installations must now make sarongs available, especially for women, so if they come across with indecent attire, they can be given sarongs to cover up the exposed parts.
He was responding to a report where two women were initially denied entry to the Jasin District police headquarters after officers deemed their attire inappropriate when they attempted to lodge a report.
Melaka police chief Datuk Dzulkhairi Mukhtar said an inquiry began immediately after the complaint was received, revealing that the incident occurred at about 5pm when the women arrived to report a road accident.
“Officers at the front entrance requested that they return home to change into more suitable clothing before making the report. This was because neither of the women had sustained any injuries,” he said.
According to the police, the women returned at 5.40pm accompanied by their mother, wearing what officers described as an appropriate attire. - December 9, 2025.
