The DAP-led citizens' action group demanding the abolition of toll on the Cheras-Kajang Grand Saga Highway continued with their crusade by launching a petition drive at the Batu 9 toll plaza near Cheras.
Nearly 50 of them, clad in yellow shirts with the message,"The Sufferings of Cheras residents. We don't want toll", gathered at the KL-bound side of the toll plaza since early in the morning, aiming to swarm cars in the area, which is usually clogged with traffic.
About an equal number of policemen awaited them at the roadside since early in morning.
However, police did not allow them to gather on grounds they did not have permit. Besides this, the traffic this morning was surprisingly smooth and this put a damper on their plan to collect signatures.
While not entirely cooperative, the police were quite receptive to the group in their negotiations.
A senior police officer at the scene said that they were prepared to be "reasonable" if the anti-toll protesters were willing to approach the issue with "the proper mindset".
Approached for comments, the officer declined to say anything.
"You are Malaysiakini? Then you just get it from them (the protesters)," he said when asked about the negotiations.
After consultations between group representative Lee Kee Hiong and the police, the group was allowed to gather and hold a 10-minute press conference.
'Toll a burden'
Kajang municipality councillor Eddie Ng, who was with the protesters, said that they were there to keep the highlight on the issue.
Ng said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had said the government was looking into closing at least one of the two toll collection plazas on the highway and that the report from the Grand Saga board showed that the company has already recouped the cost.
"The toll is not only a burden to the 200,000 or so vehicles that use the highway daily but also to residents of the surrounding housing estates whose roads have been turned into main roads by motorists trying to evade the toll," he lamented.
Fellow councillor Steven Chan added that the abolition of the toll plazas would benefit a lot of residents in the many housing estates in the area who were forced to use the toll every time they drove out.
Police also allowed the protesters to approach cars passing through the road next to the toll plaza after the press conference ended, escorting them to control traffic and ensure nothing untoward happened.
The group did so for about 20 more minutes before dispersing, as police looked on.
This was in contrast to the stern action of the police in putting down the two-week long protests against the toll in January 2007.
During that period, 21 protesters were arrested, with some claiming injury at the hands of police during skirmishes that ensued, with a few of them suing the police over claims of brutality. All of them lost their cases in court.
Apart from the on-the-ground signature drive, the group has also started an online petition at www.petitiononline.com under the petition name 'Antitoll' to solicit for support from netizens.
Protests against highway concessionaires have intensified of late, after significant toll hikes in recent years and claims that many of the firms have links to politicians and government figures, that they have already recouped their costs and were now making pure profit at the expense of the rakyat.
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