BY Jin Chia
KUALA LUMPUR, JULY 15: A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) must be established to tackle, once and for all, the root causes of the ruckus at Low Yat Plaza shopping mall last weekend, a DAP leader today urged.
DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang told a press conference this morning that there is an urgent need for an RCI with the primary objective to prevent such an incident from recurring, whether in the capital city or anywhere in multi-racial Malaysia.
(L-R) Pak Samad, Lim and Fong at the press conference earlier.
“The aim of the royal commission should be to investigate the root cause behind such riot, exterminate it and to ensure that the history won’t repeat itself in our multi-racial society,” said Lim.
“For the survival of future, I request the government to establish a royal commission for truth and reconciliation of the riot,” added Lim.
Lim proposed this in the aftermath of a brawl that broke out at the mall on Sunday.
Some five people, including journalists, were injured in the fight, and police have arrested about a dozen people in relation to the riot.
The incident started on Saturday, when a Malay customer had been stopped by several shopkeepers when he tried to escape after stealing a smartphone. Subsequently, the thief and six others returned to ‘take revenge’ on the shopkeepers, damaging the shop and causing some RM70,000 in damages.
A video of the altercation was uploaded on social media and went viral, leading to false rumours that a Chinese trader at the mall had cheated a Malay customer. On Sunday, some 200 people, acting on that rumour, had rioted and started a fight.
Following the riot, tensions ran high as the race card was played, leading to many parties, including the police and many lawmakers, to call for cool heads.
Lim said such riot only nullifies the efforts of Malaysia’s founding fathers in promoting inter-racial harmony, and also jeopardised investor confidence in Malaysia, both domestic and international.
Lim also said that the Malaysian government should take this matter very seriously.
“Why is it still happening even after six decades of nation building and the 1Malaysia campaign? If we don’t learn from the lessons (of the past), it’s bound to repeat itself,” said Lim, taking a jab at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s multi-million ringgit ‘public relations’ campaign.
“If the 1Malaysia campaign had been successful, this kind of riot wouldn’t have happened,” added Lim.
Lim said the RCI should inquire on several key areas, most notably on the incessant incitement of hatred as a result of irresponsible race-politics in recent years, and if the so-called nation building policies such as the National Civics Bureau and 1Malaysia have been a failure.
He also proposed that the RCI should be headed by former minister Rafidah Aziz.
(L-R) Fong, Lim and Pak Samad while visiting the traders at Low Yat
Before the press conference, Lim had visited the Low Yat Plaza mall with DAP Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun and activist A. Samad Said.
Samad, fondly known as Pak Samad, said that despite achieving Independence for a long time, Malaysia is still stuck in the mud of racial bigotry.
“Our ancestors planted the tree of solidarity amongst all Malaysians, it is really easy to chop it down, but it’s even harder to plant it again,” he said.
