Youths to hold New Year's Eve rally to demand for lower fuel prices

A group of youths calling itself ‘Gerakan Turun Harga Minyak, Turun Najib’ (in short, Turun Turun or Drop, Drop) intends to hold a rally in Kuala Lumpur on New Year’s Eve to demand lower fuel prices, among others.

“We Malaysian youths are determined to continue our calls for the government to immediately return the fuel subsidies at a reasonable rate so that the ceiling price can be set at RM1.90 for RON95 and RM1.80 for diesel,” the movement’s representative Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

The rally, called “Turun Harga Minyak, Turun Najib” (Lower Fuel Prices, Topple Najib), will take place on Dec 31, at 11pm, starting at Sogo, Kuala Lumpur, and will end at Dataran Merdeka, Nik Nazmi said.

Aside from their calls to lower fuel prices and topple Najib, he said, the group wants the prices of goods and the cost of living as well to be lowered. 

The group, which consists of members of Pakatan Harapan Youth as well as other youth NGOs, is targeting an attendance of 5,000 people for the rally.

Nik Nazmi (photo), who is also PKR Youth chief, said the group has planned several activities leading up to the rally to promote it, beginning this Friday, where it will distribute flyers at Masjid Negara after Friday prayers.

The group also intends to hold pre-rallies on Dec 16 and 23 at Sogo at 3.30pm and is inviting all youths to join in the activities, he said.

Turun Turun also rejects the government’s excuse that increasing fuel subsidies will only burden the country’s economy.

“The country will not be burdened by subsidies, but it is burdened by the wasteful spending that is often reported in the Auditor-General’s Report,” Nik Nazmi said.

Fuel prices have been steadily increasing for six weeks, peaking at RM2.38 per litre for RON95, RM2.66 for RON97 and RM2.25 for diesel on Nov 15.

However, the week after that, fuel prices dropped by eight sen per litre for both RON95 and RON97, while diesel prices dropped two sen to RM2.23.

The latest fuel prices are RM2.29 per litre for RON95, RM2.57 for RON97 and RM2.21 per litre for diesel.

The weekly fuel price system was implemented on March 30, and is determined by global oil prices based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) and the ringgit’s strength against the US dollar.- Mkini