KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Expecting thousands for the much-touted #ShutdownSungaiBesi rally to pressure Putrajaya to reverse the recent slew of toll fare hikes across the Klang Valley, the police must have been taken aback when only about 100 people turned up last night.
Bracing for trouble with a street demonstration in the capital on New Year’s Eve, the police posted some 300 officers at the heavily-trafficked Sungai Besi toll plaza, and parked at least 20 police trucks nearby.
But the rally was very much a tame affair. Protesters held up placards demanding in Bahasa Malaysia for the government to “bring down toll fares” and “stop torturing the people”.
One quirky handmade sign read: “Happy New Fear 2016” and listed a number of items believed will burn a hole in their already thin wallets for the months ahead, including sugar, milk and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).At 9pm, some 20 protesters gathered at a Shell petrol station near the toll plaza but police moved swiftly to disperse them and blocked off the area.Protestors moving from the original protest location near the Shell petrol station up the road to the Sg Besi toll after cops cordoned off the Shell station. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng
It kicked off a cat-and-mouse game as the rally leaders moved up and down the Sungai Besi highway delivering speeches from the back of a pick-up truck while attempting not to draw police attention.
The number of protesters swelled about 11pm and moved closer to the toll plaza after several federal opposition politicians arrived. Notable figures spotted were Parti Amanah Negara deputy president Salahuddin Ayub and its youth chief Shazlin Munir Mohd Ithin, and recent PKR recruit Fahmi Zainol.
DAP’s Syefura Othman also turned up though she stressed that she wasn’t representing her party. She said the toll fare hikes were the final straw and promised that Malaysia’s youths will rise to defend their rights in the new year.
“Malaysia belongs to the people,” she said in her speech.
“We have no other way. We must bring down BN. We must take Putrajaya. There must be reforms in the country’s administration.
THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE
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