(Nov 5): There is no dress code for the public when dealing with government departments and agencies, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said, adding that those dressed "inappropriately" will be allowed in.

The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said only public officers were subjected to dress code rulings.

"As such, the public can wear appropriate clothing in line with traditional and eastern values when dealing with government departments.

"However, the government will continue to serve the public who wear inappropriate clothes," she told Datuk Marcus Mojigoh (BN-Putatan) in a written parliamentary reply.

Mojigoh had asked if there was a dress code at government departments and agencies.

Azalina said the heads of departments could advise the public to wear decent clothes when in government offices.

There was a furore over a spate of dress code rulings this year, with women being told to wear sarongs to cover their legs when visiting government offices, as dress codes dictated that they should wear skirts below their knees.

Cases of overzealous enforcement of dress codes at government departments include an incident at the Road Transport Department office in Gombak, where a guard ordered a woman to wear a sarong.

On June 16, another woman was told to cover her legs before she was allowed into the Sungai Buloh Hospital. She was not given a sarong to wear but wrapped herself in a borrowed towel.

A week later, two women were barred from entering the Selangor government secretariat in Shah Alam for wearing skirts that were above their knees.

Since then, other incidents at a Land Office and at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport have been reported on social media and widely shared by users.

This caused de facto law minister Nancy Shukri criticised the dress code fiasco in July, and disagreed with imposing restrictions on how Malaysians should dress in public. – The Malaysian Insider