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By Mihar Dias September 2026
There is something almost wonderfully Malaysian about the news that KK Mart — once a convenient target for boycott calls — may now become the place Malaysians are told to run to when they are in trouble. https://newswav.com/A2609_FQg0u8?s=A_jlYXZAk&language=en
And the timing could hardly be more appropriate.
On the eve of Malaysia Day, Kuala Lumpur police proposed turning KK Mart outlets into Go-To-Safety-Points, or GTSPs, with about 700 outlets in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor identified because they operate around the clock, are brightly lit and equipped with centralised CCTV systems. https://newswav.com/A2609_FQg0u8?s=A_jlYXZAk&language=en
So, congratulations, Malaysia.
We have apparently travelled from “Don't go there” to “Go there if you need help.”
That is quite a journey for a convenience store.
It was not so long ago that KK Mart became the subject of a nationwide controversy after socks bearing the word “Allah” were found at some of its outlets. The controversy produced apologies, boycott calls, political anger and eventually criminal proceedings. In July 2024, the company and its supplier were fined RM60,000 each, while KK Mart founder Chai Kee Kan and his wife were discharged and acquitted. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/07/15/kk-mart-founder-wife-freed-of-criminal-charges-over-039allah-socks039-issue-company-and-supplier-fined-rm60000-each
For a while, KK Mart was no longer merely a place to buy bread, mineral water, instant noodles and cigarettes.
It had somehow become a national theological battlefield.
Now, apparently, it may become something much simpler:
A place to hide when somebody is chasing you.
That is progress.
Perhaps this is what Malaysia Day is supposed to teach us.
A country is not necessarily united because everybody agrees about everything. Sometimes unity is discovering that the shop you were told not to enter yesterday is the shop you desperately need today.
The irony is delicious.
Imagine being pursued down a dark Kuala Lumpur street at midnight.
You see a brightly lit KK Mart.
Your first instinct might once have been:
“Better not go in.”
Today, the police may be saying:
“Actually, go in. We'll be watching.”
And suddenly the CCTV that once merely watched customers buying nasi lemak, instant coffee and chewing gum becomes part of the community's security infrastructure.
The proposal even raises the possibility of police access to the chain's centralised CCTV system. KK Mart has indicated it is willing to share footage to assist police investigations.
There is a bigger implication here.
Perhaps we should stop thinking of convenience stores merely as businesses.
A 24-hour shop with lights, staff, cameras and people coming and going is already a small piece of public infrastructure. It can be a refuge for a woman walking home late at night. A place where a frightened teenager can ask for help. Somewhere a victim of a crime can run before calling the police. A landmark for a lost elderly person.
The shopkeeper becomes, unintentionally, part retailer, part neighbourhood watchman.
And perhaps part emergency receptionist.
This could go considerably further.
Why stop at KK Mart?
If the concept works, Malaysia could eventually create a broader network of Safe Points involving pharmacies, petrol stations, fast-food outlets, 24-hour restaurants, clinics, hotels and other businesses that remain open after midnight.
Put a standard symbol outside.
Make the number easy to remember.
Train staff in what to do when someone runs in frightened.
Give them direct protocols for contacting police, ambulance or fire services.
Make the system multilingual.
And, most importantly, make it visible.
Then Malaysia would have something more useful than another slogan about public safety.
We would have a physical network of places where ordinary Malaysians know they can seek help.
There is also a delicious lesson here about corporate reputation.
Businesses sometimes discover that their relationship with society cannot be reduced to sales and profit.
KK Mart has around 1,100 outlets nationwide, according to its executive chairman. The first KK Mart inside a police building has now opened at the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters, with the possibility of more such outlets in government premises.
That is quite an extraordinary rehabilitation of a convenience store's social status.
Yesterday:
Boycott it.
Today:
Protect yourself there.
Tomorrow, perhaps:
The police station has one inside.
At this rate, the next thing we know, someone will propose putting a KK Mart inside Parliament.
That would certainly solve one problem.
When MPs start throwing verbal fireworks at one another, the public could simply run to the nearest safety point.
Perhaps the real Malaysia Day message is not that Malaysians have stopped disagreeing.
We clearly haven't.
We still disagree about politics, religion, race, food, football, traffic, parking and whose fault everything is.
But occasionally, something comes along that reminds us that beneath all the arguments, we share the same streets.
And when somebody is in danger, perhaps the most important question is no longer:
“Which side are you on?”
It is:
“Where is the nearest safe place?”
If that place happens to be KK Mart, so be it.
Malaysia has always had a talent for irony.
Perhaps this is our latest national achievement:
The shop we once boycotted may become the shop we run to for safety.
That, at least, is a Malaysia Day story worth celebrating.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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