I was reading through a Forum and found this shocking incident that happened on the 26th July where staff at the Genting Hotel drew pig head cartoons on the Chinese Tourist's breakfast vouchers. As a result, these Tourists were quite pissed and staged a four hour sit-in.
Here is the news from News Straits Times:
Genting hotel sorry over 'pig' racial slur
KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian resort chain has apologised to hundreds of
Chinese tourists who complained after hotel workers drew sketches of pigs
on their check-in cards in an apparent racial slur, officials said on
Wednesday.
More than 350 tourists from China staged a sit-in protest for more than
four hours at the lobby of the First World Hotel on Genting Highlands hill
resort area on Tuesday, causing Chinese Embassy officials to intervene.
The tourists claimed the hotel's cafe workers made derogatory drawings on
check-in cards that they handed to the staff members during breakfast.
Several groups of families posed for local news photographers, showing
pencil caricatures of pigs' faces on their cards.
Pigs are considered unclean by ethnic Malay Muslims, who comprise the
majority in Malaysia, a multiracial society with ethnic Chinese and Indian
minorities.
Resorts World Bhd, a major leisure chain that operates Genting's casino and
several hotels, said in a statement on Wednesday that the dispute has been
'amicably resolved'.
'The misconduct of a few staff had offended a number of tourists,' the
company said.
Chinese Embassy officials in Kuala Lumpur, who travelled to the resort to
facilitate discussions between the tourists and the hotel, were not
immediately available for comment.
Hotel representatives 'publicly apologised to the tourists concerned, with
the assurance that severe disciplinary action would be taken against the
staff concerned and such an incident would not happen again', said Resorts
World, a subsidiary of Malaysian conglomerate Genting Bhd.
The company stressed that it 'values friendly relations with all Chinese
visitors and seeks their understanding that the irresponsible act ... is an
isolated and regrettable incident'.
Malaysia's deputy tourism minister, Mr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said the hotel
has fired three workers and given compensation totaling RM35,000 (US$9,300)
to the tourists.
These measures will 'restore the trust of foreign visitors in Malaysia's
tourism industry', the country's second-largest foreign exchange earner, he
was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama. -- AP
And here is the update where as usual, excuses were given, the Malaysian way:
Pig head on vouchers offends Chinese tourists
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-29 08:55
A pig's head drawn on the breakfast vouchers of 344 Chinese tourists in
Malaysia might have been to distinguish them from nonpork-eating Muslims
and was not meant to cause offense, the Malaysian consul general in Hong
Kong said Wednesday.
The tourists staged a protest Tuesday at the First World hotel in the
Genting Highlands resort. They wanted to express their anger about
the "demeaning" pig heads drawn on their meal vouchers.
Abdul Aziz bin Harun, Malaysia's consul general in Hong Kong, said the
incident was more than likely a misunderstanding.
"The summer has been a high season for Muslim travelers, my good guess is
the hotel staff were using the sketch to distinguish hala (Muslim) diners
from non-halal diners," Aziz said at the launch of a Chinese-language Web
site to promote Malaysian tourism.
"But as the hotel staff speak only English and Malaysian, while the
tourists speak Mandarin or Cantonese, communication has broken down,"
Aziz said.
The protest escalated into a scuffle when police and security guards
arrived with guns and dogs.
The incident was eventually resolved five hours later after the hotel
offered a letter of apology and each tourist between 50 and 100 Malaysian
Ringgit (US$13.37 and 26.74) in the presence of a Chinese embassy
official.
Malaysian Deputy Tourism Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the hotel had
fired the three workers involved in the incident.
"We are very regretful things have to happen that way because we value
very much Chinese tourists," said Malaysian tourism board director
Noridah Kamarudin.
Aziz said the incident would not tarnish Malaysia's image. "Racism is not
an issue there. It is an isolated case. It is not the policy of the
Malaysian Government or the hotel."
You can view the pictures from here
