Our Experience at Pasir Panjang: A Lesson About Responsibility and Fairness

We had just finished praying at the Pasir Panjang Tua Pek Gong and were walking back toward the shoplot area outside the temple. We did not enter any of the shops; we were only walking past. My mom was walking backward a little while recording my niece, and beside her was a tall rotating display stand placed outside one of the shops. The stand was positioned outside the yellow line, not fully inside the shop, and it stood on a roller base, which made it unstable.

When my mom stepped back, she accidentally pushed the stand. Because it was on rollers, it slid and fell. The fall was not intentional

it happened because of where and how the stand was placed. We immediately wanted to settle things politely and responsibly.

But before we could explain, the shop’s whole family rushed out. The old man insisted again and again that we needed to pay for the “whole set.” Their kid kept chanting “pay pay” happily beside us. The woman said “lai yi ge yi ge suan,” which sounded like she wanted to charge item by item on the stand.

When I asked how much, the old man said the whole set cost RM1,000. Then he changed and said RM700 for the whole set. This included the display stand and all the crystal bracelets displayed on it. That was when I asked: “Don’t tell me I also need to pay for all the crystal bracelets?” The old man said yes, because it was “a set.”

I told them clearly: if they want full compensation for the whole set, then we should be allowed to take everything including the crystal bracelets. But from their reaction, it felt like they wanted us to fully compensate them while they still kept all the items, which is unfair.

Then the woman changed her approach and said it was not like that. She said we only needed to pay for the damaged part. She asked the old man to switch on the display: the light still worked, but it could not rotate. She then said we only needed to pay for the rotation mechanism or the top cracked part, and they would fix it. The crystal bracelets were all intact.

During this time, my mom tried to explain softly that the stand fell because it was placed on rollers outside the yellow line, making it unstable, but the old man kept saying “no no.” We never refused to pay; we simply wanted fairness.

We believe in taking responsibility, and we were willing to pay for actual damage. But if a shop demands RM700–RM1000 for a “whole set” replacement, then they should provide a purchase invoice showing the true price, year bought, and actual value. If the stand is many years old, charging a new item’s full price is unreasonable. And if they insist on full-price compensation, then logically the entire set should be handed to us, because compensation means we have paid for the item.

This situation reminded us: responsibility must be fair on both sides. Customers should pay what is genuinely damaged, and shop owners should not pressure people with unreasonable charges.