LETTER | The temporary ban on new liquor licenses by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is a very worrying situation for our multiracial country. It is the start of extremist policy return, the first move I see since PN coming to power.

What is happening now is that these ministers and politicians are trying to portray themselves as fighters and defenders of Islam and in the process using whatever opportunity they can to deny the rights of non-Muslims.

This is evident as we are seeing a non-issue being made into an issue. Road accident death cases involving drunkenness accounted for less than one percent of all accidents in the last 10 years according to statistics revealed.

However, this "backdoor government" is now sensationalising the topic to look like heroes. Even the "backdoor PM" too, with an opportunity to comment on the issues a few days back.

In this process, the rights of non-Muslims are being affected. I view this as an assault on the rights of non-Muslims. And it is just the beginning. I am not going to be surprised when they start closing down bars and pubs, increasing tax on alcohol etc using whatever reasons and means to achieve their goals.

The media also seems to be dancing to their tune ... in any one day, there would be a few hundred accident cases reported across the country but the media will only choose to highlight that one case which involves a drunk driver. This has been evident from their reporting over the last few weeks. What about the cases of speeding, not following traffic signals, Mat Rempits etc? Where is the balanced reporting on this?

Be it the current government or the previous one, the government has been over-reacting to the issue of drink-driving. The leaders all are overreacting to portray themselves as saviours, and look good in the eyes of a certain community. The difference is that this current government is pushing through with their extremist agenda.

What are the statistics that involve drink-driving accident cases in Malaysia? As revealed by the article, it is at a very, very low level. Only 47 out of 55,000 road deaths in the last nine years involved drink-driving. That is like less than one percent. Which means 99 percent of fatal road accidents involved non-drink-driving cases.

The first problem here is really about the attitude of Malaysian drivers in general. This we need to address. The second issue is enforcement. We already have good laws to deal with drink-driving cases but there is a lack of enforcement.

Increasing penalties for drink-driving will not solve the problem. It will only increase corruption amongst enforcement officers. It provides an opportunity for enforcement officers to bargain for higher bribes to be paid by offenders to be let off the hook. We have not dealt with the issue of corruption among our enforcement officers.

Thirdly, our public transport system is in a terrible state. It is unreliable and expensive. Many cities, town and villages lack this infrastructure, for example, Alor Setar, Sungai Petani, Tanjung Malim, Sabah and Sarawak. So how do we force people to use public transport to the clubs when we don't have one in the first place? Kuala Lumpur is different. They have an LRT. But that also ends at midnight. If someone comes from Shah Alam to drink at Bukit Bintang, he will need to spend a lot for a taxi or a Grab car when the bars close at 3am.

Fourthly, we should be focusing on improving our roads, have better signage, bright lights, increasing CCTVs etc.

The PN government has taken the wrong path to instigate and disturb the rights of non-Muslims. Instead of focusing on the bigger picture, which is road accident cases in general, they are using the easy target - alcohol. They have to be prepared to receive a backlash on this. Malaysians should protest this move by DBKL and stand up to protect their rights.

For me, every life matters. It's not only about deaths involving drunkenness but also non-drink-driving related deaths. A life is a life. The focus should be on as what I have described above, not to score political points.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.