Merdekarya Allegedly Threatened With RM5K Fine For Playing Recorded Music Through Speakers

If you’re a fan of live music, you’ve probably heard of, or even visited Merdekarya. It’s basically a restaurant and a live music venue where talented local artists perform. Open mic nights are also hosted in Merdekarya.

Last month, in a Facebook post, Merdekarya explained what went down as their place has been shut down indefinitely by MBPJ and they have not been allowed to operate since last December. However, the restaurant is still operational as of today. This morning (25 March), Merdekarya has written an open letter to Amirudin Shari, the Menteri Besar of Selangor, to express their dissatisfaction and anger.

“You actually thought it was a good idea to send your MBPJ goons to threaten us last night?”

According to the long thread of tweets, Merdekarya revealed that MBPJ officers had allegedly threatened to compound them as much as RM5,000 for playing recorded local music via computer speakers! 

They added that they were ready to pay an amount of RM8,300 which was allegedly a demand from the organisation for “entertainment fees & taxes.”  They see it as a form of extortion and at the time of writing, no justifications for the amount of RM8,300 have been made.

Unhappy with how Amirudin handled the situation, Merdekarya decided to draw the line there and said,

“We’re not gonna pay you a single cent before you come up with a logical justification.”

They came up with a list of facts that they want the Selangor’s Menteri Besar to be aware of.

• In their 9 years of existence, all the gigs/events/talks/forums that the police warned other venues NOT to host had ended up in Merdekarya.
• We are a sole-proprietorship, even though anyone who has been to Merdekarya knows that it is run by Melani Delilkan and that they should rightfully be a partnership.
• The reason they’re not is that they decided from day one that if they are ever going to be liable and arrested for what they do, then only 1 of them will go to jail.

You can read the full tweet below.

OPEN LETTER TO @AmirudinShari,
MENTERI BESAR OF SELANGOR DARUL REFORMASI.

(merdekarya-followers' easter-egg ahead):

Listen here, you motherfucker.

You actually thought it was a good idea to send your MBPJ goons to threaten us last night?

— Merdekarya (@merdekarya) March 25, 2022

Merdekarya also justified their gradual increase in profanity by reminding the people, as well as the authorities that they started off 9 years ago with a polite, official letter. At the end of the tweet, they revealed that a new post is coming on Saturday (26 March).

Stay tuned for more updates!

 

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