Kelantan’s conservative, Islamic, PAS-led state government has weighed in on whether the east coast area will be allowed to have a cinema again, having spent the last 30 years without one: It’s a no-go.
The State Local Government, Housing and Health Committee chairman Izani Husin put the final nail in the proverbial movie-theater coffin, detailing that while the government “can impose strict conditions for cinema operators but there will still be room for social ills. After discussions, the government decided that there will continue to be a moratorium on cinemas in the state.
“Social ills” is an interesting term to throw around, especially when you remember that Kelantan was the home and residence of last year’s appalling child marriage couple of a 43-year-old man, and his 11-year-old bride. At the time, the state’s deputy Chief Minister claimed that LGBTQ+ issues were far more pertinent societal matters than you know, marrying off a kid to middle-aged man.
It’s also the same place that fined a man for wearing shorts, docks food outlets hygiene points for not dressing up to “Islamic codes,” and won’t allow for men and women to sit together in public. So that’s the wave Kelantan are riding.
On the DL – according to our Finance Minister – they’re also broke, and can’t pay their civil servants without federal government assistance.
The debate had been prompted by a Barisan Nasional representative who suggested opening Sharia-compliant movie theaters.
The Lido Cinema, in its capital city Kota Bharu, was closed in 1990, never to open again, and thus denying the good folk of Kelantan the chance to watch Lethal Weapon 3 the way it was meant to be seen – on the silver screen.
Cinephiles in the state will often drive to neighboring Terengganu to watch films in theaters.
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