Police also arrested Mikhael Iskhandar, who represented some 25 residents from the Jinjang Utara longhouses who had gathered outside the Parliament building to demand better housing.

After speaking to reporters accompanied by Batu MP Tian Chua, Mikhael was told to move further from the gates.

He refused and was detained after a brief shouting match with a police officer. Several other residents attempted to free him from the policemen, who had pinned him to the ground.

“We want to have better houses, we can’t be living in wooden houses for 25 years. Our wooden homes often catch fire and we live in bad condition,” he had told reporters earlier.

The residents were moved to Jinjang Utara by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall in 1992 as part of the government’s squatter eradication policy.

The long house was supposed to provide temporary accommodation for three to five years. However, residents only started shifting to low-cost flats in 2011.

“A hundred and forty-five families received unit numbers but have yet to receive keys, while 201 families still do not know their fate,” Mikhael said before his arrest.

However, he said, machinery to carry out demolition works were already placed near their homes.

During the press conference, Tian Chua urged Putrajaya to move the residents out as soon as possible, saying their present living conditions were “deplorable”.