If you have been following the story on the Low Yat fracas that took place on Saturday, well the altercation turned into a full blown riot last night with mobs over 200 gathering around the tech mall demanding for justice. Security and police were at hand to prevent entry into the mall and shutters pulled down early closing the place down at 9:00pm, however scuffles started breaking outside the mall and is reported a journalist and 5 others were injured in the untoward incident.

The mob was growing bigger and restless when the FRU arrived in the bright red trucks cordoning of the area, the roads around the vicinity were closed of and the press was not allowed with those already there were told to leave. The crowd later calmed down with the police giving assurance which then dispersed early morning around 2:00am.

Now, I am quite baffled on how a minor incident be it theft or cheat of a mobile phone priced not more than RM2500 could lead to a riot of this proportion, certain quarters claim racial remarks were thrown around during the Saturday melee which stirred further angry sentiment among two different races that were involved in the scuffle, while others feel everyone is too sensitive nowadays and something like this was just waiting to happen, as this being just the tip of an iceberg.

The police has come out disclaiming as the incident being a racial riot and nothing more than a misunderstanding and should have been contained on Saturday itself the IGP went on to add that those involved and responsible will be apprehended and brought to justice.

I have heard notoriety about the mall for quite some time with rowdy and impolite sales assistant but of course there are those who have been helpful and kind, the mall must need to regain customer confidence after such an unwanted event has taken place. A change must happen an SOP must be in place and they need to do it immediately.

Here’s my take on what can be done.

1.The mall authority should first ensure guarantee consumers and customers frequenting the mall do not encounter a situation whereby fraud and cheat could take place.

2. Remove tenants who carry fake goods and those reported immediately hand them to the authority

3. Allow patrons to report anonymously on rowdy and impolite sales assistants. A mall should be a place for good feelings not an unfriendly experience. This should be undertaken by the mall and not left to the tenants or dealers after all the reputation belongs to the mall.

4. Onus on the mall to provide a secure and safe environment for its patrons, the mall need a standard operating procedure when scuffles happens (its clear the mall was not prepared on what happened on Saturday) parties should have been made calm and issue resolved on the spot. Is there an officer from the management in charge of this?

5. Customers should not take the law into their own hands and should choose to report to the authorities, likewise shop attendants or workers should also report to the mall authorities or nearest police station if items get stolen or they are threatened. They should not in any instance raise their voice or get animated.

It is unfortunate that this has happened, but we have to look forward and ensure such an incident does not occur again or even possible to prevent it from happening at all, these are sensitive times but level heads should prevail and taking to the streets should be frowned upon. If every time someone steals or threatens we will have traffic jams every day.

We all love our tech gadgets and with smartphones it is easy to video things like this and spread it, as we live in a very digital world with social apps enabling every Tom Dick and Harry become a journalist, they should also be vary on what they post. Common sense or just take a couple of minutes and think before you post what you recorded, news agency have their story verified over 20 times by different editors before they are published, social media all it takes is just a send button.

Media is a powerful tool, it can bring peace or could start a war.