Going to the cinema in Kelantan remains just a dream

KOTA BARU: It looks like sitting back and enjoying a movie in a cinema here will remain a distant dream, going by the turn of events involving the state government.

People have been excited at the prospect of eight cinema screens being opened at the KB Mall here from July, after the management posted photos of the proposed screens on its Facebook page.

The dampener was when Kelantan executive councillor Abdul Fattah Mahmood was quoted as saying that no application had been received from the operator, and that the operators must strictly adhere to conditions laid out.

These include the cinemas not operating during Ramadan and prayer times at night, for men and women to be separated and for cinema lights to be switched on.

Kelantan MCA secretary Datuk Lua Choon Hann, reacting to these conditions, said Muslim families would also be affected as spouses, siblings and even parents and their children would have to be seated according to gender.

“If there are non-Muslim cinema operators, their revenue will be affected.

“Kelantan’s local authorities should prioritise safety, security and hygiene requirements above obsolete family-splitting gender separation demands,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Lua, who is also the Kelantan MCA Economic Consultative Committee chairman, said cinemas which complied with engineering and building plans would generate jobs and spur a chain of downstream supplies.

“It is laughable and self-contradictory to compel males and females to sit separately while watching a movie, when the couple or siblings will later sit together in a car after leaving the cinema,’’ he added.