High End of Town

It’s just after 2pm but there’s no sunlight, the roller shutters are firmly closed. His brother and father had recently decided that it was time for lunch and had ventured out into the day and across the street in search of something to eat. There’s a knocking at the door upon their return. They have brought lunch back with them although it cost more than normal - their eyes are burning. Even in the short time it took Suresh* to open and close the shutters he started to feel nauseous. There’s a large crowd outside on a Saturday afternoon, although the only people coming into Suresh’s shop are looking for respite, not high end fabric.

It’s now almost exactly a week after the anti-ISA (Internal Security Act) demonstrations, the tear gas has cleared up along with Suresh’s nausea, and natural light makes its way back into his fashionable textiles butik on Jalan Tuanku Adbul Rahman. However, there is still little sign of the shopping frenzy that habitually precedes Hari Raya each year. Suresh, a well dressed middle aged salesman of Indian appearance, theorises that people have been put off shopping on this normally busy street by the same reason his brother has gone to work in a different store today; a fear of reprisal of the demonstrations.

“It’s affected business all week, we’re 50% - 60% down on sales. It’s supposed to be the peak sale period, it’s the critical time,” Suresh proclaims in a downbeat tone. “We only had two to three hours of trading last Saturday, which is normally the busiest day.”

“I don’t understand why they didn’t protest somewhere else that didn’t affect others, like in a stadium, but now it’s not looking so good.” Suresh put this in the context that normally at this time of year everyone is buying their cloth to send it off to be sewn before the start of Ramadan, because once Ramadan starts the tailors stop taking orders.

On a slightly brighter note, Suresh said he had seen none of the physical damage to property that Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin has made reference to and that “business has picked up slightly over the past few days.”

Whilst another shopkeeper in a carpet store down the street towards the Sogo shopping centre said that he had seen police beating people as they were detained, Suresh’s views were more reserved. “Based on what (the police) were given they did ok, they didn’t kill anyone.” “I was a little bit scared but I felt safe because I was inside.” Outside, thousands of anti-ISA demonstrators and general shoppers were running from police as they used ‘water’ cannons (with some sort of noxious element in the water) and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Even so, Suresh’s thinks that the problems were not caused by the police. “It’s more of a government problem.” “If you ask the general population, people who read newspapers, people don’t want ISA.” “They just take all your rights, for however long they like, they can question you but they don’t even have to. It’s just like Guantanamo Bay.”

Skip to the end: I interviewed a shopkeeper on the street where there were some demonstrations recently.