KUALA LUMPUR: Kelantan MCA questioned the practicality of the Kelantan state government to disallow unmarried young men and women from riding motorcycles together.
It was reported that the PAS-led state government was looking to enforce by-laws to prevent such youths from riding together, labelling the activity as “unIslamic.”
Kelantan MCA liaison committee secretary Datuk Lua Choon Hann argued that denying youths of opposite genders from sharing a ride was not “pragmatic”.
“How may cousins or brothers and sisters share a motorcycle to commute to institutes of higher learning or to work or other family-wholesome leisure?” he said.
He also questioned how foreign tourists would be able to use motorcycles to explore the state.
"Why target unmarried youths when activities deemed immoral by PAS can be committed by anyone irrespective of age group or appearance of religious piety,” Lua said in a statement.
Lua pointed out that the laws could be seen as class-oriented for only targeting those who may only afford motorcycles.
“Who is to guarantee that bedroom shenanigans do not occur within the confined spaces of one’s car even by married couples in broad daylight,” he said.
Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said local councils had been directed to study measures to make it an offence for unmarried people to ride on a motorcycle.
“It is a trend that unmarried young couples are travelling on motorcycles and this is the sort of activities that we need to curb,” he reportedly said.
Kelantan MCA also urged Ahmad to look into road safety measures and to discourage youths from joining mat rempit races, which has become a problem nationwide.
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