Via I am Malaysian, from The Star:
KUALA LUMPUR: All cyber cafes will have to close by midnight daily and operate only from the ground floor of buildings once the guidelines to control them are enforced.
Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin said that under the new guidelines, cyber cafe operators were also banned from using tinted glass.
“The new rule also requires those below 12 years old to be accompanied by their parents or guardians to cyber cafes and they are only allowed to stay until 10pm,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.
Hamzah said cyber cafes were also banned from other co-business activities, including having games, gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative elements.
“Cigarettes and alcohol cannot be sold or consumed at these premises,” he said.
Hamzah said operators were required to keep a register to record the entry and departure time of their patrons.
“This is to ensure that all patrons are checked by operators at all times. The owners of the business must also send the names of students who come to their premises to their schools,” he said.
Hamzah said some students had been found to play truant by changing their uniforms and visiting cyber cafes during school hours.
Over here in JB, near my workplace, is a cyber cafe called KingSurf (KS for short).
It is a massive premise, three stories high with a huge lighted-up sign on the outside saying KS in striking colours against a blue background. It has clear glass paneling so that anyone can look inside and see the 100+ computers it has… 100+ on each floor!
Kids are allowed, but no students in school uniform. Soft drinks, snacks and ciggies are sold at the counter, but smoking is strictly outside or in the toilet.
Everyone who goes there is playing games, emailing or watching Youtubes. But mostly games, be it DotA, CounterStrike, those pretend-you-are-playing-music games, or various online RPGs (e.g. World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online and those Chinese ones.)
No porn is allowed, or it is well hidden from prying eyes – it’s hard to pull off when all PC screens are in the open and facing the open air. No gambling or whatnot either.
There is a membership card that gives discount for usage, and even an affiliated cafe next door. It is an intergrated business. Patrons of all ages up to 40+, but mostly guys between teenage to 30, come and lepak here between dawn to 3am and later.
A rough estimate for 300 computers at RM 2.50 an hour for just 12 hours a day means around RM 9000 gross income a day. And it is often at maximum capacity.
Now is the govt going to force this massive KS – which has other branches all over JB and KL – to reduce itself to one floor, switch off at midnight, and no longer have the ‘co-businesses’ of having games, selling snacks, drinks and opening a nearby cafe?
And what of the other cyber cafes even larger and more open and transparent than KS in Penang, Ipoh, KL, you name it?
Heck, let’s just demolish all cybercafes so our youth can go do more government-approved fun things during their free time like prostitution, gangsterism, crime, joining unlawful UMNO public rallies and of course, Monyet Khairy‘s favourite – Mat Rempiting.
Above is Poster #26 from Malaysian Politics Motivational Posters
IMHO? They just want to choke off every possible avenue the public has to view the alternative, non-Goverment Enslaved media of Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today and blogs.
Everyone start buying Streamyx and Celcom shares now.
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