Penampang Council cracking down on buskers
Published on: Tuesday, August 09, 2022
By: Sidney Skinner
The agency’s staff patrolling the Kepayan commercial center to check on possible violations.
The Penampang District Council is cracking down on buskers, who fail to abide by its requirements, as well as eatery operators who engage them, with a total of 26 compounds issued for such infractions so far this year.A spokesman for the agency said the penalties were imposed per the stipulations of the Public Entertainments Ordinance 1958.
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“Under the ordinance, the offenders can be served with a compound for as much as RM3,000,” he said.
“The errant entertainer or proprietor failed to obtain the required permit in each of these instances.”
He said a check of the Council’s records showed that 48 permits for the purposes of busking had been given out between February and August.
The permit-holders could also be slapped with a compound or have their musical equipment confiscated, if they misused the privilege to operate a live band, according to him.
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“Repeat offenders run the risk of being taken to court. If found guilty, they face the possibility of having to settle a maximum fine of RM50,000, spend one year in prison or both.”
The buskers on this five-foot-way in Kepayan were entertaining the customers in the eatery across the road.
The spokesman said the agency considered buskers to be “penghibur jalanan yang mencari sumber mejana pendapatan dengan cara menghibur (street entertainers who performed as a means of generating some income)”.
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“Our concept of ‘busking’ involves three-piece instruments, with the entertainers given up to 11pm daily to carry out their activities.
“Any ‘sistem pembesar suara (amplifier system)’, used by the buskers, should be set at a level so that the volume of their performance does not become a nuisance.”
He said several meetings had been held at the Council’s premises this year to establish the requirements for busking in the district.
The spokesman was responding to a rate-payer’s displeasure about the loud music coming from some coffee shops at a Kepayan commercial centre.
The individual, who lives above a shophouse, said the noise prevented him from getting a restful sleep at night.
He claimed to have appealed to two eatery-operators to lower the volume of the music coming from their establishments.
At the time that he contacted Hotline, he said his pleas had fallen on deaf ears.
The resident feared that other proprietors might follow suit and begin to host the same kind of entertainment at their premises.
He hoped the Council would take a more serious view of what was transpiring there before the situation got out of hand.
The spokesman refuted the suggestion that the agency had turned a blind eye to the nuisance, saying that the commercial centre had been inspected more than five times, so far.
“We found that the complainant’s claims were not baseless and traced the problem to the buskers being hosted by two eatery operators,” he said.
“One group of entertainers was performing on the five-foot-way while the other was doing so inside the coffeeshop.”
He said the Council’s Enforcement Officers had met with both operators about these goings-on.
“They were briefed on our requirements and asked to obtain the relevant permits for such entertainment.
“One of the pair has since complied while the other is in the process of doing so.”
The spokesman said the agency’s personnel would continue to make checks of the property to ensure that the noise did not inconvenience to the public living in this part of Kepayan.
CYRIL of Kepayan said the raucous noise from the coffeeshops, including the loud music and sounds of the customers cheering or clapping their hands, could be heard sometimes till as late as 1am.
He said this nuisance had been going on for some time and had deprived his family of a good night’s rest.
Cyril said the din was especially evident between 10.30pm -1.30am, when the traffic on the surrounding roads had died down.
“I have repeatedly reported this problem to the police. Each time I do, the problem will stop only to resurface a few days later,” he said.
“I suspect that the operators are hosting the entertainers in order to lure patrons to their premises.”
He wanted to know how the local authorities could have approved such activities considering both shops were neither enclosed nor sound-proofed.
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