KUALA LUMPUR: The Pasir Gudang City Council was taken to task over its inconsistency in implementing dress code in its building.
On Feb 15, a 60-year-old woman was barred from using the elevator to renew her business permit on the second floor after entering the premises as a security guard had deemed her attire 'inappropriate'.
Pasir Gudang MCA division chief Tan Tuan Peng in a Facebook posting raised the issue, saying that he would soon speak to the mayor on it.
"Is there a problem with the dress? Or is there a problem with the government?"
"I have just received a complaint from my friend. She went to the Pasir Gudang City Council to process an application," he said in a post accompanied by a picture of the supposed businesswoman in the dress she allegedly wore.
Tan said the woman had earlier gone to the reception counter to collect a visitor's pass before proceeding to the elevator to get to the second floor, where she could renew her permit.
However, before she could take the lift, a security guard told her that she could not enter as her dress was "too short" and that it must reach her feet to be considered "long enough".
"Is there a problem dressing like this?"
"I hope the mayor is able to provide a satisfactory answer. If the government did not set this rule, then there is a problem with the security guard and he should be replaced immediately.
"And there should also be an apology issued to her," said Tan in his Facebook post.
In the photo, the woman who was wearing a long dress that covered her calves, went there to renew her business permit but was denied entry at the lift to get to the second floor.
The helpless woman went back to the front desk to speak with the first female officer who directed her to go to the second floor about the situation since she did not want to quarrel with the security guard.
She lamented that she had never had such a problem with the council before and was unsure if it had started imposing a different dress code.
The woman says she did not wish to lodge an official complaint but hoped that government departments would at least have a consistent dress code and adhere to it.
