A gathering of some 300 taxi drivers to protest the government's inaction against ride-sharing services fizzled out quickly today after police moved in and arrested five protesters.

Police issued an ultimatum to the taxi drivers to disperse by 12pm and immediately moved in to arrest them after the deadline ended.

The demonstration began at 10am, with taxi drivers occupying the street along Jalan Bukit Bintang, near the Pavillion Mall, by parking their vehicles by the roadside.

The group was particularly unhappy with the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) and its chief, Syed Hamid Albar, and they demanded that he be replaced.

Traffic police responded by blocking the surrounding roads to prevent more taxis from entering the protest area.

Police also deployed some 30 personnel at the protest site, backed by two Black Maria and two tow trucks.

'Make apps illegal'

“We want the Uber and GrabCar applications to be made illegal. This is what we fight for in today’s protest as well as those in the future,” said Kamarudin Mohd Hussain, vice-president of Persatuan Transformasi Pemandu Taxi Malaysia (PERS1M).

“We want Spad to be reshuffled and Syed Hamid to be removed,” he added.

“If the government feels that (ride-sharing) application is a new trend, then we suggest they set up their own taxi applications instead of depending on Uber and GrabCar,” he said before the arrests.

The ride-sharing service was illegal and unconstitutional, he said without elaborating.

When asked who was the organiser of the protest, he replied, “There is no organiser here, everyone is the organiser.”

According to him, the group decided on their own to hold a protest today through the messaging platform WhatApps.

“Thus, we do not how soon we can conclude the protest, as there is no one to make the call,” he said.

Kamarudin also slammed the police after Dang Wangi deputy Habibi Majinji, who led the operation and had issued an ultimatum for them to disperse peacefully.

“I am disappointed with the police, that they decided resolve the issue with force.

“The problem should have been dealt wisely and in a democratic manner. We are just taxi drivers, Malaysian citizens too. And this is the issue related to our livelihood,” he added.

A few taxi drivers were heard attempting to persuade the police to allow them to stay, using the same reasoning, when the police had advised them to leave earlier.

Soon after Habibi gave the instructions, Kamarudin and three other protesters were arrested.

The rest of the protesters took their taxis and left the scene.

The police arrested a fifth person when they found a taxi parked at the middle of the road with the driver inside.

The plainclothes police pulled the young man out of the car and arrested him. An officer was heard slamming the taxi driver for being kurang ajar (rude).

Kamarudin confirmed his arrest to Malaysiakini .

Soon afterwards, Jalan Bukit Bintang, one of the busiest roads in town, was open again to traffic.