PROTEST!!!

I may be in NZ, but with the Net, I'm as close to the action as the next person in malaysia. Well, almost.

With the hike of 30 sen/liter in petrol, the people have finally woken up to the fact that the Malaysian gov is killing the people. So I saw this on Malaysiakini:

Heavy police presence at fuel hike demo

Mar 3, 06 2:24pm

Even before today's demonstration against the fuel price hike - which is due to kick off at 2.30pm - hundreds of police officers could be seen milling around the venue and the surrounding areas of the iconic Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

About 100 police officers backed by another 100 men from the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) have taken positions under the shadow of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Two water cannon trucks have also been deployed and five police trucks are on stand-by should there be mass arrests of the protestors.

The demonstration - organised by a number of NGOs and opposition political parties - is to protest the hefty increase of fuel prices by 18.5 percent to 23 percent, the sharpest hike in history.

In less than two years, the cost of petrol has gone up by 40 percent while diesel now cost 102 percent more.

Read here for context. Jeff is back after a 72 hr absence!

I just got word, from a contact seems to work near the KLCC towers, where the planned protest is. Looks small. I am blogging this at 3.44 PM MYT, so the protests would have been more of less over by the time this is posted up.

Heres the pics I got. Its taken from a camera phone, so quality isnt that clear. I do not own, or take the pictures. All rights to the owner of the picture.





Doesnt look very big. Estimates at the lowyat forum put it at 1000 or so. I have more school mates than that!


A helicopter! Good grief! Is it a press one or from the police force? It looks blue in colour, so it might be the police.


The dark black spots seem to be the trees on the roads green belt. The crowd seems to be quite scatterd. There is no clear sign of police presence in this picture. I have a feeling that this pic is taken from the Twin Towers it self! The photographer is ABOVE the helicopter!

The full picture will be clearer when the news breaks tommorow. I have no access to any Malaysian sources, so any info would be more than welcome!

As usual, the weak government is too scared of protests. And the people are still too letargic to even support these protests. Just look at lowyat forumers. With attitudes like these, its amazing that people still put up with a government that bleeds the people dry.

I'm not talking about petrol subsidies, which cause more harm. I'm talking about AP's, corruption, and stiffling speech. Whats the point of being able to make money when all the money goes to the gov?