Issues concerning minimum wage and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) took centrestage at Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s annual May Day rally in Kuala Lumpur today.
Backed by some 70 NGOs, the rally saw more than 1,000 people hitting the streets to voice out against GST and urging that the the minimum wage be increase to RM1,500.
Demonstrators gathered as early as 10am at Maju Junction before marching to Medan Pasar an hour later.
Police merely facilitated the rally by directing traffic as curious onlookers looked on, while cars slowed down and some honked in support.
At the protesters marched, they chanted various slogans including “Save Malaysia”, "”Wake up, workers” and “Workers of the world unite”.
Along the way, the protesters also made brief stops at Sogo shopping mall and Dataran Merdeka as protest leaders gave speeches in the afternoon heat.
Out of the sea of red for the worker’s day march, there was also an out-of-place rainbow flag fluttering above the crowd.
The flag was brought by LGBT activists who were not part of the organising committee.
However, the protest organisers had no qualms with the display and invited their representative to join the speeches.
Within the crowd were also banners hitting out at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as well as former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
One such placard read: “Mahathir and Najib, we don’t need you”.
The rally dispersed peacefully at around 1pm after PSM secretary-general A Sivrajan announced the protest to be over.
PSM central committee member S Arutchelvan estimated the crowd to be at around 1,500.
He urged the government to expedite plans to increase the minimum wage from RM900 to RM1,000 and to later increase it to RM1,500. -Mkini
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