Chaos in KL

The first few days of Raya may be over but the memory of the clash between DBKL and petty traders are still fresh on my mind.

It started on 12 August 2012, 10:54pm, as I was coming out of Semua House parking, I saw a large crowd creating a lot of ruckus near a DBKL truck.

Adding 1 and 2 I assume it must be between them and the petty traders as days before I saw a few officers on a daily basis confiscating the traders' trolleys filled with canned as well as bottled drinks.

So I guessed the 12th August incident must have been the traders' final straw cos their frustrated of being harassed, having to move about and running to escape the authorities during this short window of trying to make an extra buck for Raya.

Not only cant they make a profit, now they even lose all their "modal" and trolley included.

Anyway back to the incident, well there were some sharp exchange of words and ended with the DBKL truck leaving the place.

DBKL truck leaving the rowdy crowd behind

But this episode was by no way the end of the matter as again the NEXT DAY we see a bigger scale altercation between them, ending with the DBKL officers running for refuge at Balai Polis Jalan Campbell.

The traders then acted like hooligans and proceeded to destroy all DBKL properties like safety cones, tent, and signages.

NOTE the destroyed white DBKL signboard

Things only cool down with the presence of police who came to mediate between the groups. Final outcome:- the traders can trade provided they do not block traffic flow.

Police intervention

The white DBKL signage after being punched by the people 

Broken DBKL tent 

An untouched tent further down the road - spared from destruction

OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS:-
things were still sour as usually by the 2nd last day of raya, DBKL usually are pretty lax with the traders but this year, many can only trade freely after 12am..

Such a huge difference from two years ago when the police closed Jalan TAR for the pedestrians and traders.

Photo taken on 9/9/2010 12:11am

Guess it never pays to fight with the uniformed authority no matter how unjustly you were treated.