Jurong Point Shopping Centre clarifies that its Deepavali greetings were not meant to be insensitive or discriminatory

Yesterday (28 Oct) we published an article titled ‘Deepavali or Diwali debate explains unhappiness immigration influx has caused among some S’porean Tamils‘. The article on Deepavali greetings, in part, said:

“<…> if an organisation totally replaces ‘Deepavali’ with ‘Diwali’ it would be wrong and that Jurong Point Shopping Centre has done precisely that. Considering that Jurong has Tharman Shanmugaratnam as its anchor-Minister for the constituency, I am surprised that Jurong Point Shopping Centre has done that.”

Responding to the article on Deepavali greetings, a spokesperson for Jurong Shopping Point has now clarified with TISG’s lead editor by writing in his Facebook that they did not intend their greeting messages to be insensitive or discriminatory.

Starmall Property Management’s Senior Marketing Communications Manager Camie Chua said:

“We thank you for sharing your feedback regarding our festive decorations. By no means did we intend for our greeting messages to be insensitive or discriminatory. Please accept our sincere apologies if this has caused you inconvenience. Thank you for helping us understand the differences between ‘Deepavali’ and ‘Diwali’.”