Vietnam seeks to ban
dancing at karaoke parlors
Vietnam is seeking a ban on
dancing at its immensely popular karaoke parlors in an attempt to
reduce illegal drug use and prostitution, the government and state
media reported Wednesday.
The proposed regulations were
posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Tourism, which says it is trying to discourage the use of the
designer drug ecstasy. It was not clear how a prohibition against
dancing would lead to reduced drug use or prostitution. But ecstasy
is often used to fuel all-night dance parties.
"Karaoke parlors are for singing,
not for dancing," Wednesday's Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper
quoted Le Anh Tuyen, a ministry official, as saying.
Violators would face an
unspecified fine.
The proposed regulations would
also extend the hours of karaoke parlors and dance clubs from
midnight until 2 a.m. _ but only those located in luxury hotels.
That provision is intended to attract more foreign tourists in the
face of the global economic downturn, Tuyen was quoted as
saying.
Ministry officials were not
available for comment Wednesday.
The proposed ban has already drawn
criticism from people weighing in on the Internet.
"Who would monitor this rule and
who could define what constitutes dancing?" a reader named Nhu Dan
wrote to the online newspaper, VnExpress.
"I cannot imagine being forbidden
to dance when you go to sing karaoke," wrote another reader, Hoa
Tre.