The police will ensure cooperation on their part for a smooth anti-GST rally tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur chief police officer Mohmad Salleh said today.

 

"Personally, I feel this rally will start and end well," Mohmad said, after four engagement sessions with the rally organisers over the past couple of weeks.

 

"We have told them that Dataran Merdeka is out of bounds because it is under renovation," he added.

 

He said that while people are allowed to walk in huge groups from the four gathering points for the rally, they are not allowed to use loudspeakers or chant while proceeding to the rally point.

 

He estimated there will be 10,000 to 15,000 people participating in the rally tomorrow.

However, Mohmad refused to elaborate if the police still consider the rally illegal.

“Our duty is to enforce the law. We have reached an agreement with the organisers to facilitate the rally,” he said during a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.

“But whether it is illegal, you can look at the (Peaceful Assembly) Act and make your own interpretations. We are not going to interpret the law,” he said.

He advised the public to “try to avoid” rally converging locations such as KLCC, Sogo, Puduraya, Central Market, and KL Sentral tomorrow so that they do not get caught in crawling traffic.

“The roads will still be open, there is no closure, but then the traffic movement will be slow,” he said.

He urged rally participants not to provoke the police.

“We both (police and participants) have our responsibilities,” he said.

Mohmad said that he has “enough manpower” to deal with the rally tomorrow, without giving away numbers.