The organisers of the September 16 “red shirt rally” or the Gathering for Malay Dignity have been served a “cleanup bill” amounting to RM50,000 by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
Mohd Ali Rustam, former Malacca Chief Minister and president of the Federation of National Silat Associations (Pesaka), one of the main organisers of the rally, told Bernama that red shirt organisers were well aware that they would be charged for the mess they left behind, and had agreed to pay up.
KL Mayor Mohd Amin Nordin said the amount of RM50,000 was split into a calculated cost of RM38,000 by sanitary contractor Alam Flora and RM12,000 by DBKL itself.
This tallies with Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister’s statement yesterday that Alam Flora had tallied the cost of its work following the rally to be RM38,000.
By comparison, the #BERSIH4 rally held on August 29 and 30 racked up a cleanup bill of RM65,000, a controversial sum due to public perception that the mass protest generated minimal visible waste on city streets, as the organisers had set up cleanup committees of their own to deal with the trash.
The Gathering for Malay Dignity was held in Padang Merbok after DBKL gave its permission for organisers to gather there peacefully. About 20,000 Malay protesters were bussed in from all across the country to protest against perceived threats to Malay rights and privileges by “DAP Chinese” elements linked to the Bersih rally, and to show their support for Malay leaders, in particular Prime Minister Najib Razak and UMNO.
Unlike #BERSIH4, the red shirts’ gathering saw several violent altercations with the police, most notably when FRU water cannons were deployed on protesters outside the entrance to Petaling Street’s Chinatown district, and when protesters rammed through police barricades set up along Jalan Bukit Bintang, near Low Yat Plaza.
