Bar owner Joshua Billique said police visited about 30 bars and restaurants in the Telawi area at 4pm, saying that they were acting based on rules set by the National Security Council (MKN).
“They then came back at around 8.30pm to say we could serve alcohol but without bartenders and bar lights, so we were all confused,” he said.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Saiful Azly Kamaruddin referred FMT to an MKN poster which states that nightclubs and pubs, as well as restaurants within them, are not allowed to operate during a movement control order lockdown.
“Premises which have a bar-and-restaurant licence cannot open their bar counters,” he said.
When told that the owners claimed they were operating with a restaurant licence, he replied: “Then restaurants should sell food only.”
Billique said that members of the Bar Restaurant Owners group had been calling him about the police action. “I called our MP (Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil) and he said he was confused too,” Billique said. “Only Telawi was attacked. Damansara Heights, BSC (Bangsar Shopping Centre), Brickfields… They were all right.”
He said MKN had never issued any statement about a ban on alcohol. However, he said “the confusion has been going on for some time now”.
He contended that there was no regulation that alcohol could not be served. “I have a restaurant licence and a separate licence for alcohol,” he said. “Some of the other premises have licenses which state they are operating as a restaurant and bar. I don’t know whether this issue has really been resolved or whether the police will be back again tomorrow.”
Senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob has repeatedly stated that pubs, nightclubs and all entertainment centres are not allowed to operate during an MCO lockdown, a rule which has been in place since the lockdown was implemented on March 18 last year.
Last October, he said that MKN, as well as the respective municipal councils, would continue monitoring bars, nightclubs and entertainment centres that misuse their permits by opening for business.
He was responding to a question whether such outlets were manipulating their licences by continuing to operate as restaurants or cafes.