DBKL Vs Firdaus Wong: The Bukit Bintang Dakwah Tent That Sparked A Public Debate

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Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) recently issued an official statement addressing a post on social media regarding enforcement actions they took against independent street preacher Firdaus Wong Wai Hung’s street preaching stall at Jalan Bukit Bintang on 17 February.

In the statement, DBKL said the stall’s canopy structure was set up in a public area of the city that blocked foot traffic. Following that, it said that an officer was dispatched to the location to inform the involved party.

It then claimed that after 30 minutes, there was no representative present at the stall to provide cooperation or an explanation to the DBKL officer.

Following that, DBKL proceeded to dismantle and confiscate the canopy along with some other materials at the stall.

Firdaus claims there have been no problems setting up the stall in the same location before

Firdaus later questioned the actions of DBKL who confiscated the canopy and materials from the annual Multiracial Reverted Muslims (MRM) street preaching event at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur on the first day of Chinese New Year.

Firdaus, who is also the founder of MRM, claimed that no summons notice or inventory list was issued during the seizure process to state what the offence was and what the details of the seized items were.

According to a Facebook post, the preacher explained that his party has been carrying out dakwah (preaching) activities at the same location for the past 14 years without any problems and have in fact, never been informed of the need to obtain a permit because they do not carry out any sales activities or disrupt traffic.

“MRM has taken proactive steps to obtain confirmation from DBKL regarding licence requirements.

“I personally went to the DBKL Licensing and Business Development Department to ask them directly. Their answers were clear: no licence was required as there were no sales activities being conducted, and our activities were held in a public space and not at a business premises,” he said in his Facebook post.

Firdaus also addressed DBKL’s statement informing that action was taken on the reason that the event’s canopy was blocking public traffic. He argued, for the record, that the same location is used by buskers who use the same spot every day after MRM’s street preaching activities were done at the end of the day.

“If the location is categorised as an area that is in the way of traffic, then the authorities’ guidelines must be applied more consistently across all parties,” Firdaus added.

He also brought up an issue about DBKL accusing MRM of not being cooperative with authorities when they came to seize the event’s items.

According to Firdaus, DBKL claimed they had waited 30 minutes with no MRM representative around to provide cooperation.

Firdaus informed that there was an MRM volunteer in the area after the volunteer returned from the restroom at the time, and that an interaction between the representative and DBKL did happen.

He then questioned how the canopy structure could have been moved when it was locked, unless there was an MRM volunteer there to help unlock it.

Firdaus stressed that he and MRM respects and prioritizes the law, and that they are committed to cooperate with any authority to ensure their activities are conducted in an orderly manner while following stated guidelines.

DBKL’s actions spark anger online

Malaysians on social media expressed their anger towards the city hall, accusing them of disrupting Muslim preaching activities with no good reason.

Some also highlighted suspicion that an “invisible hand” is at work, considering that the MRM street preaching stall has had no prior issues conducting their activities in the same location over 14 years.

Firdaus is known to be highly vocal about the issue of “illegal temples” built around the city, beginning with the Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman Temple dispute in 2025 where he claimed that the temple was illegally operating on private land and alleged that the management received RM2 million in compensation plus a free plot of land. The then Federal Territories Minister Dr. Zaliha Mustafa officially denied these claims, stating the government had not approved any such cash compensation.