KUALA LUMPUR: Nine people including Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members were arrested for protesting the demolition of three houses and two shop lots near Masjid Lapangan Terbang Subang in Selangor, this morning.
A team comprising representatives from the Land and Mines Office, local council, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Syabas and police, armed with a court order, had gone to the location to demolish the building structures which were built on state government land.
Petaling Jaya district police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zani Che Din said the owners of the premises and PSM members, however, obstructed the process.
“A total of nine people aged between 25 and 45 were arrested for obstructing civil servants from carrying out their duties,” he said in a statement.
The houses were previously occupied by former airport committee members.
A video of the incident has since gone viral on social media. In the two-minute video, the enforcement officers including the police, local council and Land and Mines Office personnel were seen involved in a shoving match with the protesters.
The officers were seen trying to move the protesters out of the way so that a tractor could make its way through. The protesters in turn could be heard chanting “This isn’t the way”, “Don’t push, we know how to walk,” and “I pay your salary, I pay tax”.
The police’s Federal Reserve Unit personnel were also present to control the situation.
Towards the end of the video, several men were seen in handcuffs. Among them were five PSM members including PSM secretary-general A Sivarajan and PSM Youth chief Khalid Ismath.
The others were four residents of the area.
The demolition of the houses was eventually carried out at 11am.
In a statement later, PSM committee member S. Arutchelvan said 17 people have been left homeless following the demolition. He also blamed the Selangor Mentri Besar’s office for claiming that they had issued a stop work order.