The Malaysian Insight

THE government will be given another week to adhere to the five wishes of the #Turun protest before another round of rallying is held, said one of the group’s spokespersons.

Aliff Naif told The Malaysian Insight that the organisers wanted to give sufficient time to the government to respond.

Their five demands are: ministerial pay cuts, continuation of subsidies, improved aid packages for the needy, better control of prices of goods, and food security.

“One week has passed since the #Turun protest. And some ministers, such as Annuar Musa, had responded negatively to the requirement for a salary cut.

“So, we’ll give the government one more week to see if they will respond to other demands,” Aliff said.

On Monday, anti-inflation task force chief Annuar, who is also the communications minister, dismissed calls for ministers’ salaries to be reduced, saying there was no assurance that such a strategy would work to reduce inflation.

He challenged those who made such proposals to identify any country that had employed such a tactic to manage inflation.

“Can you name me one country that managed to lower inflation by (having ministers) taking a pay cut?” he asked.

Aliff said that if the government didn’t meet their requests, the next protest might be held soon enough.

“So, it really depends on how the government reacts to our concerns.

“Hence we are giving the government one more week before making a decision,” he said.

According to him, they also expect more groups and citizens to join the next protest.

“If the government keeps on mismanaging the issue of living costs, we expect a bigger turnout.”

Last week, the police stopped some 80 university students in front of the Sogo shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur from marching towards Dataran Merdeka to protest the rising cost of living.

The students gathered at the entrance of the mall at 2pm to protest what they viewed as the government’s inability to handle the crisis and, as they were about to walk to Dataran Merdeka, the police blocked their path along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

They were also joined by some politicians and members of the public.

The rally was the second time this month that young people have protested. The first rally, led by student unions, was held on July 2 outside Central Market in Kuala Lumpur.

The organisers of the protest have dubbed themselves and the protest movement as “Turun” (meaning ‘to go down to the streets’) and hashtags with the word are being used on social media.

Earlier this week, police said they had completed their investigation into last Saturday’s #Turun protest, with the investigation paper to be submitted to the deputy public prosecutor.

Dang Wangi police chief Noor Dellhan Yahaya said statements had been taken from 27 individuals believed to have participated in the protest.

He said the case was investigated under section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012. – July 30, 2022.