Of codes and concerts

KUALA LUMPUR: Recently in Malaysia, there were reports of members of the public being subjected to dress codes veering toward the conservative side of the social spectrum, when they tried to enter buildings housing public services. Some wore what they considered to be decent and comfortable, but were stopped by the security guards at entrances to public buildings. Hemlines for ladies, for example, had to be below and not above the knee. Some members of the general public whose dress sense was considered to be contrary to these stringent codes were deterred from conducting their business, such as renewing the necessary licenses for operating businesses, with the public institutions concerned. So some of those who were somewhat confused and annoyed decided to take the matter to the internet, and posted their forbidding encounters online, raising somewhat widespread public eyebrows.

Some of the Malaysian politicians in power rushed to come out to explain that public institutions were supposed to be there to serve the various needs of the Malaysian general public with multicultural backgrounds and thereby different standards of dress code. As such, these public offices should not have hard and fast dress codes for members of the public, although there might be stringent dress expectations of the civil servants concerned. This sounded rather open-minded on the part of these politicians, and many among the more progressive segment of Malaysian society were somewhat elated.