I refer to Monday's letters, "Wrong move" and "Not a care for commuters", by Mr Leonard Yeow and Mr Jeffrey Chan respectively, which reacted to last Sunday's report, "Long and winding queues... for cheap petrol".

Mr Yeow wrote that Shell's $1 per litre promotion, which resulted in massive traffic jams, was "an exercise in extremely poor corporate responsibility", while Mr Chan wrote that "commercial success has been achieved at the expense of public interest". This is the same situation in many shopping malls today, where organisers and retailers often hold events within the malls at the expense of public safety and interests.

For instance, over 800 people thronged Plaza Singapura last weekend to catch a glimpse of Korean star Lee Min Ho. He was slated to appear but his appearance was later cancelled as the crowd was too large.

Such events may generate higher human traffic to the malls, but the result is as negative as the Shell promotion's. They attract huge crowds, which restrict movement, causing much inconvenience to genuine shoppers.

Many event halls in malls, especially those in the heartlands, have limited walking space. They should not be converted into use for concerts or catwalk events.

I remember watching Taiwanese rock group Shin's mini-concert a few years ago at an open space outside The Heeren. There was a big turnout but it did not cause any inconvenience to shoppers or retailers. This arrangement showed good planning and consideration of public safety. I hope other malls can take a cue from this.

Henry Lim

This article was first published in The Straits Times.