Sunday, December 26, 2010

Arresting 47 Chinese tourists for being in an entertainment outlet is just not right...

Seriously, I wonder this is all just discrimination against young women tourists from Asian countries - usually China. Would the authorities have similarly acted against European, American and/or Australian women in pubs/entertainment outlets? I doubt it...

As reported, they are here on a social visit pass... so, they are here legally. What wrong did they do? Is sitting down, talking and socializing with men at an entertainment outlet a crime in Malaysia? I do not think so... Were they caught selling sexual services....or maybe receiving money for sexual services..? I do not think so...  Is it wrong for men to buy women drinks....or for women to allow men to buy them drinks? I do not think so...

The report say that they were arrested "...for abusing their social visit passes and immoral activities...", and I wonder how they did it? Immoral activities - well, this must be something against the law, not according to the moral standards of some officers... Maybe, what they did wrong was go out drinking and chatting with men wearing 'revealing' clothes - was that the 'immoral activities' we are talking about? 

Now, the girls get arrested...and most likely their 'social visit' passes may then expire - and then they become 'undocumented migrants' - and the police will claim that they just cannot be released, and they will then be sent to the Immigration Department to be deported back to their countries of origins...

What if you were a young girl visiting Malaysia, and you get arrested and detained for something like this - would you want to stay and fight to prove your innocence in a strange country, not your own, or just want to get back home... most do just want to escape - and authorities continue to do similar wrong to many foreign women especially from Asia (and eastern Europe). What about the owners of the establishment..the so-called employers of these GROs .... do they get prosecuted... Well, this report says that " the entertainment outlet was raided early this year and several times the previous year...." but alas while these young women get victimized, the outlets stay open - something is so wrong.


The Immigration Department arrested 47 mainland Chinese women in a raid on an entertainment outlet in Jalan Jones in Georgetown, Penang early today.

Its director, Abdul Qadir Siddiq Ahmad said the manager of the outlet and a Burmese national male were also arrested in the 'Ops Sayang' raid.

"The women, who worked as guest relations officers (GROs), were entertaining their clients, who were ushering in the Christmas, when the immigration and MACC officers closed in," he told a news conference here today.

Seven immigration officers and 19 Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers took part in the raid from 12.45am to 4am.

Abdul Qadir said the GROs in their 20s were detained for abusing their social visit passes and immoral activities while the 28-year-old manager would be investigated under Section 55B of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for harbouring illegal foreign workers.

Penang MACC director Latifah Md Yatim said the entertainment outlet was raided early this year and several times the previous year.

She said the raid was the results of public information and intelligence since several weeks ago and the MACC was investigating whether corrupt practices were involved in the operation of the outlet.

- Bernama
- Malaysiakini, 25/12/2010, No X'mas cheers for 47 'China dolls'
Malaysiakini also does wrong to these women, when they in their title calls them 'china dolls' ....is this not derogatory? Even, if Bernama used this title, Malaysiakini should have been better and more respectful of women - and a better title should have been used. I do not think many Chinese women would like to be called a 'china doll'. What does it really mean? Do you like to be called an Indian doll, a Malay doll, etc...  

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