SHUT DOWN ENTERTAINMANT CENTRES WITH FOREIGN GROs

IPOH (Malaysia), Nov 11 (Bernama) -- The northern Perak state government and local authorities have been asked to cancel the licences of entertainment outlets that hire foreign women as guest relation officers (GROs).

State police chief, Zulkefli Abdullah, said police had received many
Short Messages Service (SMS) messages from wives who complained that their
husbands spend their money and time at these outlets.

"We cannot ignore these complaints as people would say we are not doing
anything. I hope the local authorities would help with this problem," Zulkefli
told reporters at the state police chief's monthly gathering here Tuesday.

He said for the Jan-Sept period this year 983 foreign women were arrested in
305 raids for not possessing identification documents while working at the
outlets.

"Most of the women were from China, Indonesia and Vietnam and did not have
the documents or used tourist visas to work, which is an offence" he said.

Zulkefli said during raids police found rooms and hiding places, adding
that some outlets were raided several times and still found to be
operating.

He said the local authorites should lay down stringent conditions to obtain
operating licenses.

Meanwhile, the police were coming down hard on gambling using computers in
cyber-cafes which were highly frequented by punters including students.

Zulkefli said in the first nine months of the year 1,385 computers were
seized during 125 raids, a rise of 75 per cent compared to last year.

He also called on Tenaga Nasional Berhad to cut off electicity supply to
such gambling joints while the local authorities should cancel their
licences.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad -TNB is the largest electricity utility company in
Malaysia and also the largest power company in Southeast Asia.