Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Lowyat's Riot: An Early Plan with Strategy to Cause Public Fear?

You probably knew what happen from the internet and may heard of numerous of different thoughts about the riot that happen in Lowyat, If you are a Malaysian that live around KL area, it would be a huge surprise that you don't know about it or didn't thought of anything about it. Because this is not a simple protest, it's a riot that causes chaos, injuries that involve many different groups of people and damage to the name of well known Lowyat plaza.

Just a head up of what actually happen in case you don't know or not sure about it, and to clarify what had actually happen, I will explain what actually happen in the front and back in Lowyat plaza and the internet world. The internet world, if you still haven't realize it, play a huge part of causing this riot.

Saturday 11th July 2015

Let's watch (or watch again if you want) this video about the Malay gang who wreck Oppo shop to destroy their products and attack Oppo staffs in front of the crowd.

It actually begin this way: At Saturday (11th July 2015) noon, two Malay guys spoke to the Lenovo salesperson that one of them agree to purchase a Lenovo phone but when the salesperson turn his back to take some gift that give along with the phone, the two Malay boys run away with the phone and trying to escape from the mall. Lenovo staffs alert other staffs in Lowyat to catch the two Malay thefts and Oppo staffs help to catch the theft during the theft's escape. The thefts successfully caught when he fall down from the stair and the staff manage to reach them. So the relevant staffs take the thefts to the Lowyat management office and later send them to the police.

The two thefts is being brought to the police by the Lowyat's security guard. The one that steal the phone had been detained in the police station while another one was released because he is not the one that perform the thievery. Everything was good until at the late evening, the suspect that was released earlier create fake story that Oppo sell fake phone and their friend is now detained by the police so they are really upset and angry. The gang approach the Oppo shop in Lowyat plaza, and you'll know what happen next as you can see in the video above.

Here is the video of the police report that claim the truth.

There are seven people in the gang. Their main target is to attack the Oppo staffs who helped to capture their friend. Such aggressive act don't take long before other people (mostly staffs as seen in the video) in Lowyat plaza witness that and whack the few Malays that causes trouble in the Plaza.

As a result of the day, the few Malays got hit terribly by group of people and they left Lowyat.

That's pretty sum up what I know for event of Saturday. Of course there are more of it if you look around from Facebook or the internet.

Sunday 12th July 2015 Part 1 - Twisted Story From Various Sources

The next day, various newspapers and sources had confirmed on the theft case and the incident causes by the Malay gang as stated above. Here is the reference of the official news:
  1. The Star Newspaper: Melee in Lowyat Plaza
  2. New Strait Time: Low Yat Plaza mayhem as 7 men run amok
  3. Says: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Mob Violence At LowYat Plaza That Left 5 Injured
  4. Free Malaysia Today: M'sians condemn Lowyat riot
  5. Funny Malaysia: What Really Happened at Lowyat?

Most of the newspaper also publish the official news that stated the incident and confirmed that the Malay gang is the one that causes the chaos. But suddenly a serious issue occur.

Twisted story beings here: A Facebook page that label as Boikot Barangan Cina Dap ORI spread rumours that the actual event on previous day started by the Malay customer (confirmed to be a theft as reported in the news) purchase a device in Oppo shop but later on found out that the device is a counterfeit. The Malay customer got mad so he ask few of his friends to "reason" with Oppo staffs but the staffs refuse to listen and beat up the Malay customers.

Most of the people who support this Facebook page strongly believe this is the actual truth so they think that the chinese is at fault.

I read through many comments in the post that talk about the incident and this is what I can see:
  • It's either they don't read newspaper or they don't know how to comprehend basic words and sentences. News reported on the details of the incident but yet, they support that the Malay gang is innocent and the Chinese is the gangster. Sure, the staffs (not only consisting of Chinese) should not beat up the Malay gang, but that doesn't mean all the fault should be placed on the staffs and other people in the group and we should forget about how the Malay gang started with attacking people in the mall.
  • The first video above had been shared globally and can be found in Youtube, I would be surprised if they don't see the video or they don't know what is the video all about. If they saw the video, then in what sense that attacking people is consider as "reasoning" and innocent? Even if the item that they bought is counterfeit (at this point, there is no solid proof that the device is not genuine), this does not mean it's completely fine to attack people. Apparently, the people in that page still think that the Malay gang did it right and the Chinese deserved it
  • A high number of people in the page focus heavily on the issue that the device is probably from China and it's fake. Now that the Malay gang is attacking people and wreck havoc in a public place, all they want to focus is to put blame on China stock and thus, claim that Chinese is at fault on this. What brain is that?
  • Some of the people claim that in the video (these people definitely watch the video), the Oppo staff ran away because people found out that they are selling counterfeit stock so they try to escape. Come on.... are they expecting the Oppo staffs to stand there and let the Malay gang hit and kick in any way they want to show that their products are genuine? Who doesn't run away when being attacked by a group of gangsters?
  • The page admin posted video of "proof" saying that the Chinese hide weapon in Lowyat plaza so they are the gangsters. But what I see is just metal pole for various usage. Can I say that someone is hiding weapon in their house if they have something like a metal pole? Are those people who give comment definitely don't have metal pole in their house? I strongly doubted that. Still can't agree with this? How about looking for a mall or any medium size building that does not has any type of metal stick or object that could hurt people?
  • Last but obvious, even if someone actually spread rumors that the Malay gang is innocent and the Chinese is at fault, what make them strongly believe into it without thinking? My first thought when I see the video is "What happen?", and the next thing I saw is the fake news that Oppo is selling fake device so it enrage the customers. But I'm glad that I don't lack of the thinking capability to believe that is the case, especially after seeing the video of the Malay gang attacking people. That is definitely not a legit way to express your dissatisfaction when you felt cheated for purchasing a fake device. So, what's actually brainwash them to spread the rumors?
But all these are just comment and thoughts of the keyboard warrior and people who don't think properly. That's what I thought at that time until everyone realize it's not as simple as it is.

Sunday 12th July 2015 Part 2 - Chaos broke out at KL City

Approximately 6PM, a huge crowd consist of Malays appear in front of the main entrance of Lowyat plaza and claim that they are from different groups, but most of them refuse to state clearly where are they coming from. The actual amount of people is unknown but it's believed that it's up to between 100 to 300 people.

Most of the shops inside Lowyat are notified to close their shop and urge all staffs to escape as soon as they can to avoid the worst situation.

According to the news report of Astro Awani, the crowd gather in front of Lowyat remain until 8.30pm before they march into Lowyat. At 9PM, the police arrive to close the entrance of Lowyat and had the situation under control.

There are few main events that is not confirmed by the social media except for the eyes witnesses but video are all around the internet, and there are many rumors spreading around when the crowd gather at the evening.

Apparently, there is a few "leaders" among the group where most people would listen to. During the time before they attempt to march into Lowyat plaza, the crowd was listening to a few person persuading them about something and the crowd repeatedly shouting in the name of Allah, the god name of Islamic religion. Which somehow indicate that they are acting in the name of god but this event also enrage massive amount of Malays because Islam don't ask their followers to gather in group to behave like gangster and causing havoc in the public place. This is one of the leaders who work for UMNO and give some speech to the crowd.

In the video where the man spoke to the crowd, he mentioned that what they want is to claim the justice and pride for the Malays boys who got beaten up by the Chinese, which he did not mentioned anything about the theft case and the Malay gang that attack people. Furthermore, he also say here is the "bumi melayu" which means this place is for the Malays. I don't usually care about politics, despite that I heard of too many politician that trying to stir up racist war speak in a way that claim Malaysia or the earth they are standing at are all belongs to Malays. Whatever his intention is, he has no difference than those nasty politicians that brainwash people to create racist war.

The crowd also shout and chase the Chinese away whenever they see any Chinese around. And it's not only shouting and chasing away, they are also hostile and trying to beat the Chinese when they see one.

So far, no report stated that foreigners had any injury or became the victim of this chaos. It's still a better news because in this place, not many people are able to differentiate Malaysia Chinese, China Chinese, Japanese, Korea, and Asian from western country. If it so happen that the Malay gang saw foreigners and think that they are Chinese so the gang become hostile to the foreigners, what would happen to our country when foreigners being beat up by bunch of barbarian who being hostile to people on the street without any reason or purpose?

Not long after that, the crowd decided to barge into Lowyat plaza. The actual intention is not confirmed at this point. Several sources suggested that the crowd wanted to claim justice from Lowyat for selling fake stocks and accusing the Malay boy for thievery and then beat up the Malay gang on previous day.

But the crowd was stopped by police officers who arrive on time. The police officers stop the crowd from entering Lowyat plaza and close the entrance of Lowyat. Soon after that, the crowd was dismissed but unfortunately, that is not the end of the story yet.

During midnight time, the real chaos occur when the crowd gather on the street around Bukit Bintang and attack Chinese. By far, the reported incident is journalist who got beaten up for protecting photographer when the crowd got mad for the photographer taking picture of them, the crowd stopped a car and drag the Chinese driver out to beat him up repeatedly until he is seriously injured while the car got smashed and violated, several cars got its windows smashed when happen to drove by, a large part of the crowd barged into a restaurant and attack the diner. Other incidents that is not reported and I had not seen is not known but I believe there is more of it.

Again, police officers are deployed to control the situation but it's difficult because the crowd is everywhere and the amount of people who cause havoc are too much. The crowd apparently don't show a sign of fear when the police is around and trying to stop them. It take times and many officers to calm the crowd as they are all over the street.

The riot had been going on for many hours until police had the situation under control. A total of 19 person who involved in the riot was caught and this conclude the end of Lowyat's riot.

Sunday 12th July 2015 Part 3 - Where all these people coming from?

Just to recall, the Malay gang wreck havoc in Lowyat Plaza at approximately 7.50PM. Assume that they got beaten up and everything is settle half an hour later, the gap between the time that the Malay gang left the mall and the time when the people gathered in front of Lowyat Plaza, which is about 6pm, the time gap is less than 24 hours time. In another words, assume that the Malay gang started to call and gather people at the time when they got beaten up to get revenge or just to protest for whatever reason they have, they only have 22 hours time.

Assume that the Malay gang and all other relevant people sacrifice their sleep time to spread the rumors in order to gather massive amount of people for their group act. First question is: how did the rumors spread so quick and fast?

Internet is a great source to spread information quick and without boundaries. But this does not conclude that the people receive the information from internet and thus, start to act to gather in a group even if all of them coming from the same organization. Logically speaking, when few person is notified of this "unfair" event happen to the Malay gang so they want to call up a protest or gathering to reclaim justice, what is the quickest method that could gather more than hundred of people at Lowyat plaza within 20 hours? Facebook and internet is indeed a great source of spreading information but nope, people don't stare at Facebook all the time to check if there is anyone of their race is being treated with unfair judgement.

And here comes the second question as well as my main question, where all these people coming from? If the Malay gang ask for several group of people to support them to protest in a group, they need to explain to each of the group and each person what actually happen, and they need to convince people to put aside whatever stuff and work that they need to do at that day later to form this riot. Even if we assume that the Malay gang successfully convinced one of the group that they know to form this riot and the group persuade other group that they know to join the riot, how do they gather that much of people that willing to throw away their time and without any preparation to join a riot to against Lowyat plaza within such a short time?

We can assume that the reason that they able to gather so much of people within such short amount of time because they have really great and efficient method to notify every possible person in their group in a glimpse and able to persuade them to travel and gather in front of Lowyat plaza to form a riot, and we can assume that everyone are able to put aside their stuff and strongly believe that the riot is a must to claim justice and pride of the Malays. Yet, we must not overlook when you observe the crowd of Malays from different group and organizations: all of them behave in the similar way for one main intention that they are agreed on.

I'm not saying that every single person in the crowd are definitely hostile and every one in the crowd involve in attacking and injuring people. But none of the people in the crowd seems to do anything that actually related to justice but to practice and allow violence on the public. If not all people in the group are with the same intention and some of them really are there for justice, why none of the people in the crowd stop those who practice violence? Isn't it convincing us that the crowd is basically prepare to be violent at the first place and their term of justice is the same as demonstrating violence?

These are the questions that left unanswered to ordinary people like me who only able to learn something from the news and video, and to the people who almost or became victim in this chaos. Only those who are in the crowd know the actual truth and intention behind the riot.

The Important Lesson of this Riot

The actual intention of this riot is unknown. The main organization behind this riot is also unknown. But I guess it is pointless for ordinary people to keep on thinking about and trying to figure out something. Assume that the main organization that planned for this riot is a huge one, what can we do about it?

Regardless, I think safety should be a huge concern because we had witness the large group of people who gathered and cause trouble on the street, and these people are not all being caught or detained by the police. I'm not surprise that they will continue their plan at the public especially KL area, and especially to Chinese.

Nevertheless, this event had somehow stir up some racist issue and some group and people believe that it's the conflict of Malays and Chinese. This is definitely not true at all. At best, it's all about misunderstanding over unreliable sources and overeaction on things. As there are Chinese who claimed that the staffs in Lowyat should not beat the Malay gang but hand them over to the police, and there are Malays who claimed that it's the Malay gang who cause trouble at first and crowd is not right for demonstrating violence on the public, this is not the issue of racist at all.

Lastly, as a Malaysian, I'm ashame that our country is at a state where such violence is being practiced on the public and at the street. And these people actually behave like there is no constitution law exists in Malaysia. Even our local gangster would behave when there is police around. I live in Malaysia for more than 25 years and honestly, conflicts between different races and groups occur time to time but this is the first time I see a large group of people wreck havoc in the public with the excuse of one irrelevant thievery case.

Malaysia has Vision 2020 to achieve a fully developed country by the year of 2020. The first achievement in Vision 2020 stated "By the year 2020, Malaysia can be a united nation, with a confident Malaysian society, infused by strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that is democratic, liberal and tolerant, caring, economically just and equitable, progressive and prosperous, and in full possession of an economy that is competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient". We have four and half more years till 2020. I see a huge gap for our country to achieve this ultimate vision that seems too hard for us to achieve.

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