On Monday, Sept 7, 2009 I was forcibly removed and manhandled by 'gangsters' from the Masjid Jamek LRT station, after which I was denied entry for carrying a foldable bicycle.

Like most days, I cycled to the Taman Maluri LRT station and folded up my bicycle as I have done the past year.

Upon approaching the ticket counter, I was shocked when the security guard on duty told me that I couldn't bring my bicycle into the station.

The ticket staff concurred and refused to sell me a ticket.
I was then given the number for the communications general manager of RapidKL from a friend and spoke to him.

He offered to allow me in this time and follow up with a letter that will give me clearance every time I flash it to security personnel in the future.

Five minutes later, one of the staff approached me and offered to allow me in, but only this time. He told me to never bring my bike in again after that.

Realising it would mean that I agree to the condition, I refused to enter and sat in front of the turnstiles in protest with my bicycle.

Thiry minutes later, I realised this was a rather futile action and proceeded to Masjid Jamek instead. On the way, I stopped by a stationary shop to buy and make myself a makeshift manila card placard.

Once again, I sat down in front of the turnstiles with my bicycle and unfurled my placard that says 'Entry denied: RapidKL says no to green sustainable transport'.

A policeman approached me but I ignored him as I felt that I was doing nothing wrong. He then left me alone.

Things changed when three men and a woman, whom I suspected were plainclothes policemen, approached me. The woman first tried to talk to me, but not more than two sentences later, the men began shouting at me.

Given that they refused to identify themselves I chose to ignore them. They later began manhandling me. At this point, I admitted defeat and offered to walk myself to the police vehicle believing that I was under arrest.

The men escorted me to the top of the station, followed by a policeman. They then returned my belongings and disappeared. Surprised, I asked the policeman who they were and in the most nonchalant manner, he replied: "I don't know, they could be gangsters."

Thoroughly puzzled, I asked him: "If they are gangsters, isn't it the police's duty to protect the public from them. Why did you just look and not do anything?" He shrugged and walked away.

I then made a police report at the Dang Wangi police station to obtain a formal documentation of the incident.

Having gone through all that, I have to say that I am absolutely appalled at so many levels. First, there is no policy in place to encourage the use of sustainable and environmentally transportation; and secondly, there seems to be a serious security issue if it is true that thugs are operating in the premises.

In light of this, I would like to call upon RapidKL to have a comprehensive review on bicycles by means of consultation with real cyclists.

I also urge RapidKL to immediately replace the contractor entrusted to maintain security in the area as it seems that they have failed to prevent gangsters from operating, or worse, could be deploying gangsters without the knowledge of RapidKL to solve problems that they find difficult to deal with.