SINGAPORE MALL UNDER FIRE FOR RACISM

S’porean woman files report after getting ‘insensitive’ e-mail from staff

SINGAPORE: A woman has filed a police report against Tampines 1 shopping mall, alleging that she was subjected to racial discrimination by an employee of the mall.

The mall had earlier issued a public apology to businesswoman Diana Hairul and told The Straits Times it had counselled the employee about her actions.

On Thursday, Diana, 36, posted a screenshot on Facebook of an e-mail she received from the employee, saying she had felt discriminated by the reply.

The e-mail read: “Hi Dee, we are not so keen to run a Malay road show as our target audience are mainly Chinese. Thus, we regret to inform you that we are unable to rent a space to you.”

Speaking to The Straits Times yesterday, the mother of four said she was appalled by the mall’s callous response to her enquiry about renting a space in its atrium for a pre-Hari Raya fair next month.

“Even if they were to say ‘no’, at least do it graciously. Such an unprofessional and insensitive reply was not what I expected,” she added.

Property management firm AsiaMalls Management, which owns the mall, said it was aware of the police report and was “fully cooperating and assisting with the matter”. Diana’s Facebook post subsequently went viral and resulted in some backlash from the local Malay community on social media, prompting a swift reply from Tampines 1 on its Facebook page the same evening.

“The management and staff of Tampines 1 would like to unreservedly apologise to Ms Diana Hairul and the Malay community for the manner in which the reply to her e-mail was undertaken,” it said.

“Under no circumstances is Tampines 1 discriminating against any race and the management of the company would not tolerate such a position.”

It said the employee, who signed off as “Jen” in the e-mail, had been “dealt with appropriately”.

Responding to queries, AsiaMalls said yesterday morning that it was taking the matter seriously. However, it later said all attempts to speak to Diana so far had been unreturned.