KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today voiced rare agreement with Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia in its claim of the continued risks of unrest over unresolved resentment following last week’s Low Yat Plaza riots.

But the Gelang Patah MP differed, however, with the newspaper assessment that the lingering threat was limited to the vicinity of the shopping mall that was the scene of a bloody riot.

“I say it is not just Low Yat Plaza but the whole of Malaysia is a time bomb waiting to explode if race hatred, religious tolerance, breakdown of rule of law and the collapse of good governance are not resolved urgently,” Lim said in a statement.

Repeating his call for “Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the Low Yat Race Riots”, the DAP parliamentary leader said it was imperative for the country to discover the true cause of the violence that left five people injured and over two dozen arrested.

Lim explained that his proposed inquiry would help show if the riots were caused by the continued use of race and religion in local politics and whether social media had played the pivotal role that government ministers claimed, among others..

Malaysia could not afford to again sweep the issue under the carpet as it did when the country experienced deadly race riots in 1969 as doing so will prevent the nation from taking lessons from such disasters, Lim added.

Editors of Utusan Malaysia today warned that a ticking time bomb remained in Low Yat Plaza unless authorities took action to allay the view that its traders enjoyed protection against enforcement.

Writing under the Awang Selamat pseudonym in today’s Mingguan Malaysia, they insisted that the riots were not caused by the alleged theft of a mobile phone as claimed by the police, but was rooted in discontent against what they alleged to be corruption, gang activity and counterfeiting.

The mob violence last Sunday was said to have stemmed from rumours spread through social media claiming that a Malay youth was cheated by an ethnic Chinese trader who sold him a counterfeit smartphone.

The man’s companion was said to have contacted their friends who then assaulted workers from a mobile phone store and caused an estimated RM70,000 in damage later in the day.

The fracas and subsequent rumour prompted a mob to gather outside Low Yat Plaza the day after the youth’s arrest to demand “justice”.

Police have maintained the crime was not racial in nature and have classified it a theft case involving an unemployed 22-year-old who was later charged with stealing a RM800 phone from an outlet in Low Yat last Saturday.

The incident that left five people hurt caused some observers to draw parallels with the deadly race riots of May 13, 1969.

Police have arrested 24 people in connection, including several for sedition; one person has also been charged under the security law for allegedly inciting racial tensions.