(May 5): Some of the 29 youths arrested for participating in the May 1 Workers Day rally are said to be members of the anarchist and punk scenes from Kuala Lumpur and other states, a Facebook page called Pustaka Semesta said.

Since the rally on Friday which drew an estimated 10,000 people to the heart of the capital, the page, which describes itself as an "info shop", has been posting updates on the youths, 23 of whom have been in remand since Saturday and are expected to be released later today.

In a recent post, the administrator of the page said some of the detainees said they were "beaten by the cops when they were taken in".

The page has been calling on friends and supporters of those detained to come to the Dang Wang police headquarters, where the youths are being held, to show solidarity over the past few days since the arrests. Six of the youths, who were underage, were released on Saturday night.

In its first post about the arrest on May 2, a day after the Workers Day rally, the administrator said a few of the 29 arrested were "friends from the anarchist and punk scenes from Kuala Lumpur, Kuantan and Malacca".

It added that one person was arrested while trying to leave the scene as arrests were being made on Friday evening, while another who was recording the incident on his phone was also arrested by plainclothes policemen.

The page also said that youths were justified in committing property damage and vandalism as these were "direct actions that intend to draw attention to socio-political and economic issues that affect us on a daily basis”.

"Property damage and vandalism does not even compare with the multiple oppressions and violence that people living in this country have faced and subjected to by the state and corporations.

"Again, products of capitalists are prioritised over the lives of people, and the state is always quick to take action when capitalists are affected or the image of their gentrified city is smudged," the post said.

During the rally, youths dressed in black, some wearing hoods and who had their faces covered, were seen setting off smoke bombs, throwing firecrackers on the road, burning rubbish and spray-painting graffiti on signboards and metal hoardings.

A supporter of the group, who identified herself as Thilaga and would not give her full name, said while she did not know those behind such actions, believed that they were "justifiable" in order to "get the message across – that the existing system is oppressive".

"Not to say that what they did was right, (but) people need to see this within a context.

"Because, if you look at the things that have been written, it was all about calling for Bantah GST (reject goods and services tax) and rising against oppression. These are positive messages... to tell people to understand what capitalism is and that the system is oppressive," Thilaga told The Malaysian Insider.

She said not everyone who wore black and concealed their faces on the day of the rally necessarily knew each other, but they had acted together because they shared the same beliefs about the state.

The use of the anarchy symbol and red and black flags was also meant to display their beliefs.

"People who subscribe to this philosophy oppose hierarchy and authority. For us, institution, hierarchy and authority are oppressive structures. Because we believe that there should be no bigger authority than you and no one should tell you what to do," she said.

"We don't know who these people are," she said referring to the vandals. "But we believe in diversity and tactics. We believe that all tactics matter – through protest, rally, memorandum, tweets and Facebook. We come together because we understand the philosophy."

One supporter, local university student Muhammad Haikal, 24,  said the youths who felt this way were a "people's coalition" coming from different underground movements which he named as "antifa, anarchy, leftist, socialist and skinheads".

Their goal is to protest against the "existing system", he told The Malaysian Insider when interviewed on May 1 during the rally.

"Our aim is to tell people that politicians and political parties cannot solve the youth's issues. Political parties were not elected by everyone and they don't bring the people's agenda. They bring only their party's agenda.”

The Workers Day rally on Friday was held to oppose the GST. It ended peacefully without incident apart from the smoke bombs and firecrackers, and police only began rounding up protesters in the evening after it was over.

Besides the 29 youths arrested, other high-profile arrests included lawyer and activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan. Several other opposition members and politicians were arrested, as well as activists, many of whom have been released.

The youths who are in remand are being investigated under Section 143 of the Penal Code and Section 4 of the Corrosive and Explosive Substances Act.

The brother of one of the youths held criticised the police for labelling the youths as anarchists, saying that should first get their facts rights.

"They have to prove the label, don't just pick up young people from the streets and call them anarchists just because there were firecrackers," he said, declining to give his full name because his mother has not been told that her son has been arrested and was still in remand.

He also said that whether or not his brother was participating in the rally or was just a bystander was beside the point as it was not an illegal rally.

"People have the right to assemble in Malaysia, we are not a police state.”

He also said the government was employing high-handed tactics to assert its power, and criticised the police for double standards for letting off politicians who did not get their remand extended.

He also criticised the police's handling of the arrest.

"For the past few days my brother has been remanded, the IO (investigating officer) was not there all the time, so I don't know if their statements were recorded the past few days.

"I know this because there was one time I called the Balai yesterday and asked them when will the remand end and the person on the other end said he didn't know.

"When I asked to speak to the IO, he said the IO was not around," he added.

Police yesterday obtained an extra day of remand for the 23 held since Friday night, on the grounds of wanting to record the statements of the investigating officer, the arresting officer and also public witnesses, and to an identification parade and retake photographs of the 23 in the clothes they were wearing during the rally.

Lawyers have said such reasons were an abuse of police powers.

On Friday, after the arrests, activists who saw the youths in handcuffs also decried such treatment of minors, while lawyers said their request to have Welfare Department officers present with the minors during questioning was not heeded. – The Malaysian Insider