When common sense makes an uncommon appearance it should be welcomed, at the very least, with applause. But when it possesses none other than the Datuk Bandar of Kuala Lumpur, it should deserve an outright ovation.

The controversy over the blanket ban imposed by City Hall on performing licenses issued to the Instant Caf Theatre (ICT) took a dramatic u-turn with our very own Datuk Bandar, Mohmad Shaid Mohd Taufik, condemning the action taken by City Hall's licensing department.

According to a report in the Malay Mail on July 22, the mayor himself said that he "did not find anything offensive about the show." He goes on to say that: "We, KLites, must be broadminded and liberal enough to accept such shows."

These statements are commendable and indicates respect for a person to make their own choices.

The freedom of choice is a beautiful thing and we dread the day when sections of people get the right to dictate what we can watch or cannot watch. If you can't swallow it, spit it out and be on your way.

However, we wouldn't be in a hurry to get up off our seats to clap with wild abandon.

The mayor said that he would take away the issuance of permits for theatre groups from his City Hall's licensing department and that he "was in the dark over the entire episode."

These statements give a disquieting glimpse of how City Hall itself runs itself. It seems to suggest that before and during this incident, the licensing department was practically autonomous on the issuance and cancellation of permits to theatre groups. It also seems to suggest that the officers in there reigned supreme in their little fiefdom.

More worryingly, it appears that the officers who control and prowl the licensing department are mostly narrow minded ultra-conservatives - the last people who should be issuing permits to theatre groups (they were, after all, not broadminded and liberal enough to allow the show). Sadly, we do not recall the mayor saying he would hold any of these officers accountable.

The mayor's actions whilst admirable are also too little, too late. These things should not have happened in the first place. The Malaysian government prides itself on its qualities of stability and certainty because according to this government, everybody knows that these are good for business.

And most theatre plays for all its attempts to entertain, educate and titillate, at the end of the day runs as a form of business as well. The ICT had no doubt spent a great deal of time practising for the play, planning the logistics and calculating the duration of their stint to be profitable, or at the very least, break even.

Therefore, when the licensing department suddenly killed the show at the very end it smacked of not only economic apathy but cultural and practical apathy as well. And this conduct is symptomatic of the apathy that exists in almost every government department in this country.

Any decision concerning legitimate businesses should be clear and predictable. The mayor's reversal of that department's decision is actually no better (in the grander scheme of things) but consistent with this attitude as well.

We also think that just because permits for theatre plays are now to be issued by the Datuk Bandar, this does not necessarily mean it is a good thing. Instead of a few in the licensing department, it will now boil down to the decision of one. Why should the mayor be the sole person in charge of the permits?

Finally, the present mayor is also not as "broad minded and liberal" as he makes himself out to be. He was reported to have said that "as a whole we can approve the script (Bolehwood script), with a little bit of change." So don't be surprised if he chooses to flex his playwriting skills sooner than we would hope.

So we will be sitting out the ovation and applause at the Datuk Bandar's decision and statements because in the final analysis it is no better than it was before nor it appears to be any hope that it would be.

Edward Saw, Fahri Azzat, Amer Hamzah and Edmund Bon
Advocates & solicitors