KLCC Protest 2: An Update

Technorati tags: Politics, Malaysia, Fuel Price Hike, Protest, KLCC

First of all, this just in (from The Star online), picked up by my RSS reader at 5:49pm today:

PM: Govt will act to lessen fuel price impact on poor

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says he will announce more measures to lessen the burden of the poor following the 30 sen rise in fuel prices.

A very short statement. Bernama, however, has more:

More Aid To The People To Offset Fuel Price Hike, Says Abdullah

PUTRAJAYA, March 10 (Bernama) - The Government will announce certain measures soon to help the people tide over with the effects of the 30 sen hike in fuel prices, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today.

The prime minister, however, said whether the measures would be part of the contents of the Ninth Malaysia Plan to be tabled in Parliament on March 31 or required a separate announcement would be decided later.

(The rest of the news release can be found here)

But the question I have in my mind: has this been prompted by the protests on two consecutive Fridays (last week and this afternoon)? And will these be well-thought of effective measures, or will they just be rushed measures to appease the apparently frazzled nerves of the rakyat? Particularly those whose lives have been very much affected by the 30 sen fuel increase, plus the increase in just about everything else, as a result. The frazzled nerves of the very grassroots that voted the current government in.

We’ll have to wait and see – when exactly, I don’t know, but I’m sure Pak Lah sees the urgency.

Meanwhile, the water cannon shoot-out apparently did not happen at KLCC, but near Concorde Hotel, after those that didn’t disperse from the rally continued with a march down Jalan Ampang towards Jalan Sultan Ismail (as reported by Sun2Surf).

Most of the pictures taken at the protest rally have been referenced to at Jeff Ooi’s Screenshots (thanks, Jeff, for the plug!). Here are some other reports from around the bloggerhood:

REPPORTTOSAADON has a personal report of the protest sit-in, and has re-posted the Newsasia report.

Paul Ooi has a whole host of pictures taken at the rally, with a report done by his housemate who was at the scene.

Yet another report and a few pictures can be found at Leanne’s Say (whom I believe either works somewhere in the Twin Towers, or has a head for heights!)

And more...

By the way, Google has a new tool that searches blogs, named aptly enough, Google Blog Search – this is what I used to find the references above. Run this search query to find the references above, and others which I have not listed here.

Lastly, being new on the blog scene, it’s always graifying to get more hits in one day than the entire time the blog’s been in existence! Thanks to all who dropped by.