SHAH ALAM, 21 Apr: The people’s assembly to reject the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on May 1 will be held at four different locations before ‘ending’ at Dataran Merdeka.
The Coordinator of Youth Solidarity Merdeka (SAMM), Badrul Hisham Shaharin, said that the assembly named the ‘May 1 Assembly 2014’ will be held at the National Mosque, Brickfields, Sogo and Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) as the main groups before coming together at Dataran Merdeka.
“Some people are asking if the assembly will be at Dataran Merdeka or not and because many parties are involved, we are taking a stand like when Najib announced ‘the aircraft ended in the Indian Ocean’, so this assembly will also ‘end’ at Dataran Merdeka,” said Badrul Hisham when contacted by Selangor Kini today.
Badrul Hisham, or better known as Chegu Bard, said that the May 1 event, which will start at noon in KLCC, is expected to end around 2.00pm before the start of the march to Dataran Merdeka.
He said that various events have been arranged to take place at KLCC by a group of organisations that have come together to form the May 1 Committee, 2014, like speeches from leaders, presentations and the labour day affirmation.
Commenting on the assembly permit, Chegu Bard has requested for the authorities to respect the rights of citizens to peacefully assembly, as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
“On the issue of the GST, I ask the authorities, like the police and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), to be rational because we are holding this to answer the call of the Prime Minister when he presented a budget that touched on the GST, he personally said that he wanted to see the people’s response.
“We have responded in many ways but perhaps ministers or agencies lied to him by saying that the people accept it and the GST was presented in Parliament.
“So we want to tell him clearly in this large assembly and we have proven on the night of new year’s eve that the demonstration participants entered Dataran Merdeka without chaos, nothing was broken and so on, but it was carried out smoothly,” he said.
He said that it is common for people to gather, including at Dataran Merdeka, on weekends without a permit.
“Dataran Merdeka should belong to the people. Is Dataran Merdeka no longer independent, does it no longer fit with the manifestation of its existence?” Badrul asked.
