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Tibetan thrown out of shop in Australia

Sunshine Coast Daily Online

Jampa, the owner of Spirit of Tibet Restaurant in Sunshine Coast, Australia, says he was racially abused.Sunshine Coast Daily Online/Warren Lynam/Australia

A Sunshine Coast business has been accused of racism after he treated a Tibetan born customer “worse than a dog”, throwing him out of the store.

Jampa, who runs Mooloolaba’s Spirit of Tibet restaurant with his wife Merri An Bastin, is disgusted at the way he was treated by a staff member at the Bolt In Co in Maroochydore last Friday.

He said he went to the Wises Road business to buy wire for a shade house.

Jampa, an Australian citizen who speaks fluent English, said the staff member serving him waved his arm dismissively and then ordered him to leave the store.

Jampa said the staff member said he could not understand him.

“I said, you’re a racist, why would you do that,” Jampa said.

“I came here to buy stuff.

“I wasn’t rude.

“I run a business too.

“I know how to treat customers.

“We never speak to our customers like that.”

Jampa, a self described pacifist, said he kept his cool and left the store.

The married father of two young children said he could understand being asked to leave the store if he was he behaving badly.

However, to be told to leave because the person serving him could not understand him was disgraceful.

“I was really upset at the time,” he said.

“I’ve been here 11 years and it’s never happened before. I thought, ‘Okay, it’s just once in nearly 12 years.’”

Jampa said Bolt In Co owner Greg Martin — who overheard the incident — eventually apologised to him.

“The only reason I was upset was because the employee didn’t bother to take the time to understand me,” he said.

Jampa may have kept his cool at the store but his wife did not.

Ms Bastin admitted she became enraged when her husband returned to the car and told her what had happened.

She went into the store to confront staff.

“I’m appalling disappointed — I can’t believe it,” she said.

“You wouldn’t tell a dog to get out of a shop like that.

“All Jampa wanted was an intelligent answer to a question about how much something cost.”

Ms Bastin said she was most upset over Mr Martin’s failure to act when he overheard what was happening.

At the end of the day, she said Mr Martin lost more than $700 in business.

“If I was in Mr Martin’s position, I would have come and asked what the problem was,” she said.

Mr Martin denied racism was behind Jampa being told to leave.

He said the Tibetan behaved rudely when he did not get the answer he wanted and that is why he was shown the door.

“He wasn’t thrown out — he was asked to leave,” Mr Martin said.

“It’s better to ask him to leave instead of getting into a physical fight.

“Race had nothing to do with it.”

Mr Martin put the incident down to a misunderstanding.

“Obviously it’s very difficult for him being an Asian with the language barrier, but nothing racist was said,” he said.

Copyright © 2009 APN News & Media Ltd.

Published in Sunshine Coast Daily Online