KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian king Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar on Wednesday (Apr 3) granted an audience to Chai Kee Kan – the founder and executive chairman of local convenience store chain KK Super Mart – at the Istana Negara.
According to a post on Sultan Ibrahim’s Facebook page, Chai sought forgiveness from the king as well as all Muslims regarding the issue of the sale of socks bearing the name of “Allah” at its outlet.
Photos of the sale of the socks went viral online, sparking outrage and calls for a boycott of the convenience store chain.
Sultan Ibrahim in his Facebook post said that he wanted all parties, including KK Super Mart, to be more careful about the products sold. This is especially so for imported goods brought into the country and to prevent such incidents from happening again.
“All parties must be more responsible. I hope this is the last time I have to stress on this,” said Sultan Ibrahim to the Royal Press Office.
“Once again, I stress that no party should take advantage of this matter, including inciting others. I don’t want this issue to drag on,” said the king.
Prior to this, Sultan Ibrahim had previously said that such gaffes relating to religious and racial issues are unacceptable and should never be allowed to happen again.
On Mar 26, Chai as well as his wife – who is the firm’s company director – were charged with “deliberately intending to hurt the religious feelings” in the Muslim-majority nation.
Three officials from vendor company Xin Jian Chang who had supplied the socks were also charged with abetting the alleged crime.
In the aftermath of the incident, there have been reports of multiple cases of petrol bombs being thrown at different KK Super Mart outlets in the country, including in Sarawak.
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