Mohd Ali Baharom (centre), better known as Ali Tinju, speaks to reporters at Kota Raya, in Kuala Lumpur, on December 18, 2015. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — Mohd Ali Baharom, a leader of the red shirts movement, urged the government today to conduct training for Chinese handphone traders, saying this would prevent future cases of cheating.

The army veteran more popularly known as Ali Tinju also said that training these traders would prevent another incident like the bloody brawl at Low Yat Plaza several months ago.

“I request that the government send all Chinese traders for training. If they are trained, then the Low Yat incident would not repeat,” he said at a small protest of about 15 people at the Kota Raya shopping centre here this evening.

Ali Tinju, who organised the protest following reports that a handphone trader had cheated and even detained a customer for several hours, also called for a year-long boycott of the popular city mall to teach unscrupulous handphone traders here a lesson.

“I would like to urge people of all races in our country to boycott Kotaraya for the time being until they understand and change,” he said.

He said, however, that the boycott should only involve handphone outlets that have been known to cheat customers.

“If people keep shopping here, these traders will feel big and great. They will say that they still get customers even though they cheat them. However, by uniting, we can boycott them to teach them to respect consumers.

“Give them about a year. I will make this go viral on Facebook, blogs and Twitter. The media also plays an important role in spreading the word,” he said.

Today’s protest was held following a report in Malay daily Utusan Malaysia that said a man was allegedly “confined” in a small room for eight hours by several traders after he refused to buy four handphones for RM10,000.

According to the post, the man had initially agreed to pay RM800 for the phones at RM200 each, thinking the deal was a steal, but was shocked when he was told the rate had gone up to RM10,000.

When he told the traders that he wanted a refund of his RM800, they reportedly held him against his will and subsequently agreed to accept the RM5,000 that he withdrew from the ATM.

The blog post did not specify, however, if the traders were of Chinese descent.

Ali Tinju, who is also the head of the Association of Armed Forces Veterans, was previously investigated for sedition over remarks he made ahead of the Low Yat Plaza riots in July, which was triggered by a false rumour that a Malay youth was cheated by Chinese traders.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers did not, however, file charges.