According to Kamarudin Mohd Hussain, deputy chairman of the Association for the Transformation of Malaysian Taxi Drivers (Persim), the cabbies drove from KL Central to Bukit Bintang through Jalan Tun Razak.

They moved slowly and stopped their vehicle whenever they wanted, causing a traffic standstill across two lanes of the three-lane Jalan Bukit Bintang near Pavilion.

“The protest began at 4pm. If we hold a demonstration without our cars then we would be arrested. So we do it like this, relaxed,” he said when met at Bukit Bintang.

At around 8pm the drivers took a “short break” when they spotted several police officers with their trucks guarding the road in front of Pavilion.

Without pointing to a specific individual, Kamarudin said a message of the massive strike was circulated through WhatsApp and the angered drivers, had in unison agreed to participate.

“It’s possible that this will take place every week, at different locations.”

He also said the drivers had chosen to hold the protest on one of the busiest nights of the week as they wanted to attract government attention so the conflict could be resolved as soon as possible.

“If the government decided to allow Uber and Grabcar services then we are prepared to give up our cabs and drive our own cars.”

Persim had prior to this, suggested for there to be a quota allowing former taxi drivers to serve with the ride-sharing application services.