Thousands turn up for march in support of water issue memo

Monday December 6, 2010
Thousands turn up for march in support of water issue memo
By STEVEN CHIEW, WANI MUTHIAH, P. ARUNA and RAHIMY RAHIM
news@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of protesters turned up in front of the National Mosque to support the handing over of a memorandum on the Selangor state water issue to Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Negara.

All roads leading to the palace and the mosque were guarded and blocked by police causing a massive traffic jam in various parts of the city.

Before the protest, Parti Sosialis Malaysia chairman Dr Nasir Hashim, party secretary-general S. Arutchelvam and Shah Alam Councillor A. Sivarajan were arres­ted on their way to the mosque but were immediately released.
Keeping it calm: Police keeping the gathering of protesters over the water issue under control at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur Sunday.

Most of the demonstrators, who were wearing red T-shirts, held flowers as a sign of peace but were chanting loudly, creating chaos at the vicinity of the mosque.

The protesters who gathered from noon waited for the arrival of Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim who gave a speech at the mosque before proceeding to the palace and handing over the memorandum bearing 150,000 signatures to a palace official at 2.10pm.

Among the contents of the memorandum was to request the King to order the rights over water resources, now handled by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), to be returned to the Selangor state government and for the King to review the objectives of the Water Services Industry Act 2006.

Water has become a controversial issue in the Pakatan Rakyat-led state and currently there is a stand-off between the state government and the Barisan Nasional-led Federal Government over the earlier proposed Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer project.