YOURSAY | Banned for life - the day M'sian humour died

YOURSAY | ‘Can any authorities prevent anyone from earning a living for life?’

No more laughs from Crackhouse as DBKL permanently blacklists owner

YellowFalcon7173: How can Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) ban someone from registering a business for life?

Deputy Federal Territories Minister Jalaluddin Alias, you are a comic. You should open a comedy club yourself.

The owner of Crackhouse Comedy Club can challenge the ban in court and will surely succeed. Besides, what is the basis for the ban when the owner is fighting the criminal charge against him in court?

Even if found guilty, there is still no basis in law for DBKL to ban someone for life.

KS Lim: Isn't DBKL acting beyond its powers? To announce that Crackhouse owner Rizal Van Geyzel is pertinently blacklisted and then add "this means the owner cannot register any businesses in the city even if he is using another name and company" seems to be excessive.

DBKL seems to be acting as judge, jury and executioner, and isn't that beyond the scope of its powers? Charge the owner in court by all means, and if found guilty, take action accordingly.

Federal Bakery: I have two comments on this triumphant message from DBKL. First, one cannot ignore the glee with which the matter is announced.

You can all but touch the ooze from their mouth when they use phrases like “permanently” and “for life”. They sound like a monster slurping the blood on its lips as it swallows the last entrails of its prey.

My other comment is that DBKL seems to have forgotten that it is there to serve the people living in the city for all their different needs. They are given powers to fulfil that purpose, not go around depriving people of their rights permanently.

Blame it on Saturn, which is in reign at the moment - there is a madness affecting officials in this country that is fast spreading.

Hrrmph: Is this not rather heavy-handed? Do they have the right to blacklist someone for life? Can that person ever own a business in KL again? Can any authorities prevent anyone from earning a living for life?

Has Rizal ever been convicted? Apparently, he is guilty even before proven in a court of law.

On the other hand, we have that fellow who has been found guilty in two courts of law and yet running around with impunity, causing grief everywhere.

Justice is so swift for some that they do not have to be convicted before being punished, whilst for some, the punishment is deferred time and again.

FairMind: Thanks to Crackhouse, the laughs on DBKL will go down in history.

Is DBKL beyond the Federal Constitution, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the courts, who have the immense power to ban a person from doing business for life?

To be banned for doing the same business – that is, cracking jokes – perhaps one could understand. But banned for life for doing any business?

That is an immense power for an organisation to hold; even the Agong, prime minister and the courts do not have such power.

Whether the joke is an insult to Islam is up to the court to decide and the trial has not even started. Isn’t DBKL jumping the gun to declare the parties are already guilty?

If that doesn't contravene the Federal Constitution on the travesty of the personal liberty of a person, I don't know what is.

Newday: I wish DBKL could be blacklisted for life! After all, you are responsible for the crime of allowing essential public open spaces to be traded off for condos and carparks.

Extraordinary efforts by you to destroy a business that was built from the ground up and then take the extreme step of blacklisting Rizal from ever owning or operating a business in the capital city again.

For what? For doing comedy and making people laugh.

Shame on you DBKL for fostering ultra-conservative Islam upon us like this. There will be no heart, soul or fun left in Kuala Lumpur if you continue to head down this path.

By the way, Rizal never insulted Islam. His main offence was a comedy routine a few years ago with “Malays” and “lazy” in the same sentence. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad beat him to that a long time ago.

Siva1967: Indeed, what was the "crime" that has been committed that deserves such a punishment? And on what basis did DBKL arrive at this decision?

Clearly, the punishment does not befit the crime. Isn't it enshrined in the Constitution that everyone is entitled to make a living?

Kuniyo: Kuala Lumpur needs an election to elect a city council that understands and is responsive to the needs of the people.

Rather than being obsessed with shutting down a comedy club, DBKL should do a better job in traffic management, garbage waste disposal, cleaner and safer streets, adequate parking at a reasonable rate, punctual and comfortable city buses, affordable public housing, flood management, etc.

Ipohcrite: This sort of draconian punishment should be reserved for high-level politicians who, using their lofty positions of trust, steal and embezzle from the rakyat with impunity.

You don't mete out such severe punishment against people who exercise free speech and perhaps (not that I agree) tell some bad jokes or jokes in poor taste.

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