THE recent incident at and around the Low Yat Plaza in Bukit Bintang is, to me, a very sad day for Kuala Lumpur. An incident that was sparked off by something as silly as a mobile device (based on a newspaper report that quoted
Rioting over a hand phone?
Well said Chairman.
Well said sir. We should move from this racially base politic and multi stream education system. From there we take off to a better Malaysia.
Yes fully agreed – the root cause is the separation of our children in 3 different schools, agama, Chinese & Tamil. Abolish all for the sake our our beloved country!!
True that it began on Saturday evening as a straightforward case of shoplifting and hooliganism but the demonstration by 200 people outside Low Yat Plaza on Sunday had taken on racial dimensions which is worrying, given the already tenuous racial and religious sentiments which have been building up over the years, fanned by constant politicking, including racially inflammatory comments on pro-establishment and anti-establishment website, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and what not.
The anonymity and separation afforded by the Internet encourages people to be more bold with their statements online in the belief that they are relatively safe from physical harm behind their computer screens but the hurt and resentment which can eventually result in bloodshed, especially for innocent parties.
Quite frankly, I fear for what could have happened inside Low Yat Plaza Sunday evening had the police not prevented the 200 from charging in.
I visited Low Yat Plaza at 5.00pm yesterday (Monday) evening and was rather shocked to find most outlets on the ground floor to the top floor closed and was informed by the customer information desk that most shops in the mall had decided to close for a day, whilst a shopkeeper at one of the open shops said that it was a “special holiday”.
I do not know why they closed but can only guess that it could have been either to allow for a cooling off or as a collective statement to show what it’s like when the mall is closed for business.
Anyway, I understand that the plaza resumed business as usual this Tuesday and hopefully no more such incidents will happen again.l
However, we must face the fact that racial and religious sentiments which have been building up below the surface broke through over the weekend and something needs to be done to cool it, though with the government preoccupied with matters such as 1MDB and the accusations and counter accusations, I don’t know how much it can really do to address the problems, especially when they are compounded with issues such as the rising cost of living.
Meanwhile, if Malaysian value the freedom of speech and expression on the Internet we need to be more responsible with what we say online but are we up to that?
As for tourism, well this incident is world news now or at least regional news and hopefully it will not deter tourists from coming.
Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin and may peace prevail.