Mara Digital 101 - racism can’t generate business

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YOURSAY | ‘You need hard work and perseverance to succeed.’

Minister: Bumi digital mall won't close down in 3 months

Speaking Sense: Teach people to compete fairly, not give them unfair exclusive rights just because of race. Only then will the country progress as a united, cohesive and harmonious society.

This minister is blinkered as always and sees racial issues in every corner and uses the race card crudely as a substitute for lack of constructive ideas.

Alfanso: Any business has a culture, a discipline. In case you want to copy the business idea, do it with that in mind, otherwise you will have to sell the Melbourne property plus dig into whatever is available (rakyat’s money), which is what has been going on all these years, and end up like the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance (BMF) fiasco.

Hamzah Paiman: Any human worth his salt will not patronise a business enterprise based on racist ideologies.

As Muslims we should not practise racism and thus it would be ‘haram’ to have such tendencies and dealings.

PKM: Racism cannot generate business. Location alone is not enough, you need hard work and perseverance to succeed. But I guess what do Umno ministers know of such things?

Fair Play : Not intending to pour cold water, but let's take a look at reality in this highly competitive market.

First, a retainer must have capital to stock a variety of models. Second, staff must be knowledgeable in technology and English. If both ingredients are not in abundance, closing shop is the only viable option.

The truth is that retainers in Low Yat are hardcore businessmen. They are there because they are good, not because they are non-Muslim Malaysians.

Mojo Jojo: It is such an irony to read that you hope consumers would be colour-blind, while the set-up of your bumi-version Low Yat is purely based on racial terms.

Ismail Sabri Yaacob, you need to get one thing straight, people do not patronise a stall, shop, company or any establishment because of the owner's ethnicity. The factors that seal the deal are reasonable pricing, good service and product quality.

If traders in Mara Digital can truly adopt these business practices, you won't have to be concerned about competition from Low Yat.

My only concern is this - would you blame the non-bumis, especially the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia, for any eventual follies that may befall your pet project?

Myop101: I am all for competition. After all, this will lead to better goods and services.

However, if it involved more government subsidies that lead to leakages and wastes of government funds (read: rakyat money), then better not have it.

Truth Really Hurts: If traders have to pay rent and receive no other financial assistance, they won't last three months.

With six months’ free rental, you are just extending the inevitable by six months. Most of them will fold within nine months.

The only way they can truly survive is for Mara to make it mandatory for all Mara bodies and students to buy from the traders. Soon we will see Mara Digital vouchers being distributed.

Gunnerrun: I see lots of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis plying their trade at Low Yat, especially in the back alley shops that handle PC repairs and offer second-hand parts and cheaper hardware.

There are a lot of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian workers managing shops and even more on the floor where the handphone stalls are located.

The owners may be Chinese but there's no stopping who can work there or not. Low Yat also does not impose a quota on the racial composition of those renting shops there unlike Mara Digital.

I bet at your mall, vape products will be sold in galore, in fact, will be part of the strategy to keep vaping business alive and get even more youths addicted so that traders protected by you will benefit.

Also, if you want to be totally free from products produced by kafirs, you should produce your own, totally, so that you can be 100 percent syariah compliant.

StrainingGnats, SwallowCamels: Quote: "While the mall is 100 percent bumiputera-owned, I hope that its customers comprise all races. I hope we can be colour-blind from the consumer perspective...".

Ismail Sabri, why would you want colour-blindness only from consumers in a marketplace where the businesses are totally bumiputera- or Malay-controlled? Would even the Malays want this business model? Would not even the Malays find this to be reason-defying?

The inconsistency is impossible to ignore. The injustice is equally hard to stomach. If the project fails, it is not because Malaysians are not colour blind. If it fails, it is because you are not colour-blind.

If Mara Digital fails, it will be your failure. And you will have hurt the people you claim you want to help.

If this is not a commercial project in the first place, if Mara Digital is really a racial, political project clothed in see-through thin commercial garbs, how can you expect it to be commercially successful?

Jaguh: If there was no hoo-hah created for Mara Digital, it would have a multiracial crowd, but because Ismail Sabri has deemed it as a bumi-owned place, he has created this racial barrier for non-bumis.

I really pity those who operate stores there; your failure will not be due to customers, but due to the perception created by this minister.


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