KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Most mobile phone shops at the Kota Raya mall here kept their shutters down today, after a group stormed one outlet to demand refunds in a violent attack that left two people injured.
The mall commonly frequented by handphone deal hunters and foreign workers was quieter than usual today as many avoided it despite the presence of uniformed policemen, fearing a repeat of what is said to be a racially-charged incident.
But workers at three mobile phone outlets who remained open said all mall traders, regardless of race, should not be afraid to continue with operations.
One trader who declined to be named told Malay Mail Online that he believed yesterday’s incident to be an isolated one.
According to the 30-year-old, the fight ensued because of a bad dealing with one company.
“It is not our problem. Why must we close? It is business as usual for us,” he said.
He added that he was not afraid because all his dealings have been transparent, leaving him with no unhappy customers.
“Why must we be scared? We didn’t do anything wrong. We still got (sic) customers coming and our service is good,” he added when met at his shop.
The trader, like several others manning the other handphone stores, refused to state if he felt yesterday’s violence was racially-motivated.
A signage on one of the shops involved in yesterday’s brawl indicated that it had changed hands and that any problems with previous deals should be taken up with the previous owners.
But one handphone shop owner laughed this off as fake.
The man who also insisted on remaining anonymous told Malay Mail Online that the owner of the outlet has several other shops in the same mall.
“The owner is the same. He only claims to be different now. Three or four branches around this area, all closed today,” he said when met.
Although most of the mobile phone stores remained shuttered, other shops in the mall were operating as usual.
One sundry store that stocks food supplies for foreign workers from Myanmar and the Philippines was still packed with customers today.
“No la, normal only today. Normal amount of customers, it’s a weekday maybe that’s why there are fewer,” a female Filipino trader at the store told Malay Mail Online.
Yesterday, The Star Online reported that a brawl broke out at the mall at around 5pm when some 20 men armed with sticks and helmets stormed a handphone shop to seek refunds over an alleged cheating case, and got into an argument with the workers that turned violent.
Last week, former soldier Mohd Ali Baharom or “Ali Tinju” held a small protest outside the mall over the matter, calling for a boycott and demanding that Putrajaya conduct training for Chinese handphone traders to stop them from scamming consumers.
Yesterday’s brawl that left two people injured was reminiscent of a similar incident at Low Yat Plaza in July that saw several individuals hurt after racially-charged riots broke out over another alleged handphone cheating case.
