The May Day celebrations

KUALA LUMPUR, Thurs (May 1): A request was made by the organisers of the “Workers’ Day Celebrations” for the Bar Council to send a team of observers to monitor the events scheduled to take place this morning.

The celebrations were to start with a gathering at Dataran Merdeka followed by a march to the Confucian Private Secondary School and for activities and events in commemoration of workers’ day to continue there until 1 pm. The celebrations were organised by Jawatankuasa 1 Mei, a loose coalition of civil society groups, non-governmental organisations and political parties.

A monitoring team consisting of members of the Human Rights Committee – Amer Hamzah Arshad, Chin Oy Sim (Executive Officer), Andrew Khoo, Puspawati Rosman, Saha Deva, Brendan Siva, Soosai Raj, Andy Yong, Seira Sascha and Siti Kassim – were present this morning to observe the events that unfolded at Dataran Merdeka.

We were greeted with the now familiar sight of a heavy Police and FRU presence. By 9.10 am, it was observed that there was no gathering of people at Dataran Merdeka. A delegation of three representatives from the organisers of the May Day celebrations walked past the barricades to speak to the police officers in charge.

While these discussions were taking place, people could be seen gathering on Lebuh Pasar Besar, more specifically on the bridge adjacent to the Bar Council building.

At about 9.40 am, the FRU and Police personnel began moving from Dataran Merdeka towards the crowd, which now numbered between 100 – 200 people. Although the delegation representing the organisers of the march were still in negotiations at Dataran Merdeka, the authorities immediately asked the crowd to disperse. The crowd did not do so and waited for clarification from their delegation.

A minor incident broke out when several people tried to join the crowd by walking through the line of police and FRU personnel. The police and FRU refused to allow them through. Any further tension or incident was avoided when the people decided to walk the long way around to reach their fellow participants.

Word was then received from the delegation that the crowd would be allowed to walk but they were not allowed to march and display banners. They were also allowed to wait at their present location until the delegation returned and other participants from Ipoh arrived.

At about 9.55 am, the delegation returned and confirmed that the crowd could proceed with the walk. They organised the crowd to walk in pairs or in threes to the Confucian Private Secondary School. The walk was peaceful and orderly. There were no untoward incidents during the walk. The walk ended at the school at about 10.45 am and proceedings started at the school hall. Several state assemblyman and members of Parliament from Pakatan Rakyat including Dr Nasir Hashim, Elizabeth Wong and Zuraida Kamarudin attended the events at the school hall. Some of them had earlier taken part in the walk.