6 Things you probably missed about the “massive” GST Rally last week

We’ve had quite a few headlines over the long weekend that have received widespread attention – like the MyVi racing accident and the Mayweather Vs. Pacman fight at the forefront of our Facebook feed.

And in between all of that was news of that Anti-GST rally that happened last Friday.

As a brief intro, the rally was organized by Kita Lawan, a youth-centered group of (mostly) opposition members, activists, and NGOs – 56 NGOs, to be specific. They first made headlines with the #kitalawan rally for Anwar, which the cops allowed to happen and immediately started arresting the organizers after. There isn’t much info about the group and it’s members (whom we only find out are members when they get arrested) but you can read their manifesto on their Facebook page.

So if you’ve missed out on the juicier details on the rally, here are six things that we thought would rally your interest.

1. The cops gave permission for the rally.

Yup. This is the major difference between the first Kitalawan and the GST one:

The first Kitalawan (for Anwar) DID NOT receive police permission and was treated as an illegal assembly. The police stood by and allowed it to proceed but started arresting the organizers soon after it ended.

The Kitalawan Anti-GST Rally on the other hand received the green light from the police to proceed but only at Padang Merbok with the express warning that action would be taken if the participants or organizers went against their advice, citing the earlier Himpunan Derita Rakyat as an example of how peaceful rallies can be conducted with both organizers and the police:

“If they choose to hold the rally at Padang Merbok, there will not be a problem. … We will even facilitate to ensure no untoward incidents happen just like we did with [Himpunan Derita Rakyat] but if they refuse to heed the police’s advice, it will be considered an offence and action can be taken against them according to the law.” – City Deputy Police Chief Datuk Law Hong Soon, as quoted in The Star

CILISOS would also like to point out that it’s quite befitting that the Deputy Police Chief is named “Law”

So this means everything went on smoothly and everyone went home after, right? Well…..

2. 30+ people were arrested after the rally.

While the police DID give a green light for the rally, they started arresting protestors for the following reasons:

1. The protestors went beyond Padang Merbok (which was the designated area) to KLCC, 8km away.
2. Firecrackers and smoke bombs were allegedly set off by the protestors.
3. Alleged vandalism of public property by the protestors.

The total number arrested varies, but most reports place the initial number at 59.

Lawyers for Liberty’s Eric Paulsen clarified with us that 30 ordinary civilians were arrested, including one man who initially “fell through the radar” when he was arrested separately. This number however does not include opposition leaders and activists, including Datuk Ambiga who expressed surprise at being locked up overnight since she wasn’t an organizer.

“I’m shocked, because I’m not part of the organisers. I spoke a few words during the beginning (of the rally) but after that, that’s about it.” – Datin Ambiga, as quoted in The Star.

Batu MP Tian Chua‘s arrest also drew some attention when his car was allegedly hit by a police vehicle in the middle of the highway, was forcefully arrested, and driven from Seberang Jaya (Penang) to Dang Wangi police station (4 hours away from Penang)

At the time of writing 23 of those arrested have been released without charge. Speaking of leaders and activists…

3. Dr. Mahathir was invited to participate in the Rally and almost caused a fight (sorta)

With Dr. M’s increasing criticism of PM Najib, there has been some speculation/hope/wishful thinking/greatest nightmare that he may eventually join the opposition. This was further emphasized when PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu extended an invitation to Dr. M to attend the rally, saying that he’s “always welcome” should he decide to.

While there were no reports of Dr. M attending the rally, it was reported that a fight almost broke out among DAP supporters versus a “PKR Grassroots Club” who showed up with pro Mahathir banners and chants for Mahathir to replace Anwar’s position within PKR as de-facto leader.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) for some, this is not very likely since Dr. M has mentioned that he “would not collaborate with anyone to bring down Najib, especially with the opposition.“

4. A politician and a newspaper kena con by photoshopped pictures.

Usually, the BN-friendly media is accused of downplaying these rallies by under-reporting the number of protestors. These are usually disputed by the opposition posting photos of the crowds to reflect the “true turnout”. Unfortunately, one such attempt seems to have backfired.

A day after the rally, Perak DAP Chief Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham posted an arial view of Friday’s rally along with the caption “Aerial view of anor sectn of Hancur GST. BN media says turn up only 5,000. U believe?”

Apparently a number of online users no believe because it was quickly pointed out that not only was the image photoshopped, it was BADLY photoshopped, with generous amounts of copypasta and no attempt to clean out the square edges of the crowds (notice how the crowd leaks into trees and even the LRT tracks). While no one seems to have accused Datuk Ngeh of doctoring the photos himself, he has received quite a bit of flack for not checking before posting. The post has since been removed, and replaced with…..more pictures of crowds.  🙄

The Malaysian Insider was also the victim of a photoshopped picture when they published a picture of a group holding a banner with the text “Undur Hadi Undur” in their “live” coverage of the rally. Unfortunately, the kononya unedited photograph was supposed to read “Undur Rosmah Undur”. Here’s a comparison from Celah Gelegar:

The Malaysian Insider has since removed the photo and issued an apology to PAS and party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

Gaiz, if you need any help identifying bad photoshop, just ask us :). We’re like the JAKIM of that k?

5. No one knows for sure what the rally is called (!?)

If you’ve opened any of the links we’ve provided as a reference, you might have noticed that everyone’s referring to the rally by different names. Here are some examples:

“#Kitalawan berakhir di KLCC…” – The Malay Mail Online

“Police say they have arrested 29 people over the Workers Day rally…” – The Malaysian Insider

“Cops give green light for May 1 anti-GST rally…” – The Star

“…updates of the Kita Lawan rally in Kuala Lumpur in support of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim…” – Malaysiakini

And from this, we have arrived at the possible conclusion that NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO CALL IT (or even what it’s about)! 

See, here’s the problem – #kitalawan is commonly associated with the movement to free Anwar Ibrahim, and there have been a few Anti-GST rallies that have taken place, including one on Labor Day last year. So what happens is that you have to be very specific on searching for this particular rally. If you typed “kitalawan rally” you’d get the Anwar one; and “gst rally” brings you the Kelana Jaya one. And that was us knowing what we were searching for. 

BERSIH sets a much better example – the objective has always been clear – electoral reform. Also, BERSIH rallies have been distinguished by numbers such as Bersih 2.0, 3.0, and so on. Like SAW movies… and with awesome posters somemore.

Heck, even we didn’t know what to call this rally, so we just called it the GST Rally in the title (cos got character limit). But if we were to name it as accurately as possible given the conditions above it would be the Kitalawan Labor Day Anti GST That Is Not The 2014 Anti GST Labor Day Rally Rally.

And this is what we think may have contributed to the lack of awareness of the rally and, possibly, contributed to the low turnout. Oh sorry, spoiler alert for the next point, because…

6. Only 1% of the expected turnout showed up (of course, they were kinda ambitious)

In early April, the Kitalawan secretariat projected a national turnout of 1 million people at the rally, saying that the combined strength and cooperation of the various groups involved would ensure that the KPI is met.

Unfortunately this fell way short of the mark, as most KPIs are prone to go (joke, no citation needed) with about 10,000 people showing up in KL, 400 in Penang (original estimate: 5000), and 250 in Kota Kinabalu (no estimate given). Some news sources straight out called the turnout “disappointing,” while Pakatan leaders described it as being “satisfactory“.

Actually, we kinda cherry picked that picture, but this one makes it look much better.

Still, compared to BERSIH 3.0’s 250,000 attendance, and amidst such strong public outcry over Najib’s administration in recent months, this could’ve been much bigger.

“As the tax has come into effect in the last month, the interpretation that has resonated the most is that the Najib government is taking from the people. With views extending from ‘robbery’ to grudged acceptance, the public is now aware of taxation more than ever before and sentiment is overwhelmingly negative.” – Bridget Welsh, Senior Research Associate, Center for East Asia Democratic Studies, NTU, Malay Mail Online

So why was the turnout so low?

Well, aside from the possible lack of awareness of the rally mentioned above, the rally also happened to be held over a long weekend. Y’know a long weekend where everyone would be traveling and (not by choice) having an illegal assembly on the highway. Like, what we’re trying to say is that traffic was as bad as that joke in the previous sentence. One of our writers apparently took 15 hours to get to Cameron Highlands even.

But we hope you don’t think we’re against this rally, because we’re not. In fact, we’re all for freedom of expression. It’s just that we kinda hope that these things can be marketed better. Let us tell you what we mean…

When this writer first joined, the one thing (among many others) constantly drummed into my head is…

“Don’t write for people who already know about the subject. You should be writing to introduce new people to this subject… suubjecttt….. SUUBJECCCCCTTTTTT….” – CILISOS Editor’s echo in UiHua’s head

And maybe that’s the problem. It always seems as if the social media posts or any related media are targeted at people who are already familiar with the movements. For the less-politically inclined, “kitalawan” may well be a football club slogan.

So here’s what we think rally organizers need to consider before planning the next rally:

1. Connect to the general public, not just those who are already politically active.
2. Have a clear “brand” for each event. If it’s a regular thing, find some way to make each one distinct.
3. Don’t organize a rally during a long weekend, even if it’s an anniversary of something important – sometimes significance isn’t as important as getting REAL unphotoshopped pictures like this.