May Day Celebrations Marred by Arrests

This year’s May Day is clouded by many government actions against workers and their defenders. The Human Resources Minister has denied the workers of this country an increase in the Minimum Wage that was due on 1 January this year. This has been compounded by the imposition of the GST which is a burden on the ordinary worker. How will a worker on minimum of RM 900 pay for the GST? The workers certainly have been burdened by this government.

May Day 2015

The senseless and unwarranted arrests of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, parliamentarian, editors, a cartoonist is the government’s strategy in covering up from public view the real issues of the Malaysian economy and its effects on ordinary Malaysians.
Trying to remain legitimate the police used the courts to slam a May Day rally in Kota Kinabalu to curb protests on the burden of Goods Services Tax (GST) on people’s lives.

May Day, 2015

We condemn these arrests and harassment of these individuals and groups who speak of the injustices to the people of Malaysia and the government’s disrespect for their dignity.

The tactics the government uses are to:
1. Create panic, fear and
2. strain the resources of individuals and groups – families and groups kept busy outside lockups
The methods used are:
1. Those arrested are punished or harassed but no investigation is done
2. Arresting people in the middle of the night or use kidnap tactics
3. Charging individuals on baseless grounds
4. To censor social media – through blogs, twitter, facebooks, web news and others
5. Using the courts to rubber stamp the policing

Speeches at KLCC, Jalan Ampang

These tactics by the government of Najib Tun Razak is to shroud the public on the shady deals on 1MDB (1 Malaysia Development Berhad), the high prices of goods such as cars and medicine. He U-turned on many of his promises and one of them, the repealing the Sedition Act; launched a weak budget burdening the people of Malaysia with GST. Before the launch of the 11th Malaysia Plan no shortcomings or achievements were made of the 10th Malaysia Plan. The 10th Malaysia Plan was to see the growth of Small Medium Enterprise (SME) as it contributed 33% to the GDP in 2013. But it has dwindled by 10% which means an increase in unemployment.
The present Inspector General of Police (IGP) has misused his powers and is a puppet of the Barisan Nasional (the ruling party) whose aim is to keep ordinary citizens shrouded in fear and clueless about the actual state of this nation. The police force in this country can longer be trusted to keep the security and uphold the safety and well-being of the people of this country.

We demand that
1. The GST be withdrawn
2. The minimum wage be increased from RM900 to RM1,500 per month so workers are able to live dignified life
3. The IGP be sacked to restore the confidence in the police force
4. To stop the harassment, detention and arrests of people who have the fundamental right to assemble and express their grievances against injustices.
5. The government be transparent in all its policies.