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Activists from the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), march during a rally in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AP

March for ‘reform’: Thousands protest against scandal-plagued Malaysia PM Najib Razak

More than 10,000 yellow-clad Malaysians flooded the capital on Saturday to demand Prime Minister Najib Razak resign over a corruption scandal, as feared clashes with pro-government rightists failed to materialise.

Leading reformist group Bersih, whose colour is yellow, turned out huge crowds for the second time in 15 months to vent anger over allegations that billions of dollars were looted from Najib’s brainchild investment fund, 1MDB.

Time has come for us to topple this cruel regime. Najib is no longer suitable to be the prime minister. He is abusing the law
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad

Tensions in the Muslim-majority country had spiralled in recent weeks following threats by the “Red Shirts” ethnic-Malay rightist group to disrupt the demonstration.

The government arrested the leaders of both sides in the hours leading up to the rally. That did little to stop Bersih’s momentum, but the Red Shirts turned out in far smaller numbers and began dispersing early. No clashes were reported.

Bersih’s demonstration shut down much of Kuala Lumpur, with riot police fencing off large areas at its symbolic heart.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been spearheading calls for Najib’s resignation, joined the rally, adding momentum to the demonstration.

“Everybody feels concerned about the kind of government we have now,” said Mahathir, wearing a yellow Bersih shirt. “The government is very cowardly, trying to prevent a demonstration, which is the right of the people.”

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed (centre), his son Mukhriz Mahathir (left) and Former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin at the Bersih rally. Photo: AFP
Members of Malaysian Indigenous tribe dressed in ‘yellow shirts’ attend a rally in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

“Time has come for us to topple this cruel regime. Najib is no longer suitable to be the prime minister. He is abusing the law,” Mahathir said.

Rivers of yellow flowed downtown as Bersih marchers blew vuvuzelas, carried caricatures of Najib and other 1MDB figures, and chanted “Catch the Thief in Chief”, and “Hidup Rakyat!” (“Long live the people!”).

“We want a clean government. We want fair elections,” said Derek Wong, a 38-year-old real estate agent. “As a citizen I am out here peacefully to decide the future of the country. We hope to see Najib removed and charged in court.”

Bersih, which means “clean” in Malay, is an alliance of scores of NGOs and civil-society groups.

It has staged several protests over the years demanding electoral reform, but has recently shifted focus to 1MDB.

This marked the fifth rally organised by Bersih, which also held similar protests concurrently in two Malaysian cities on Borneo island. The last rally that Bersih organised in August 2015 also demanded Najib’s resignation, attracting a crowd of 50,000 people, according to police estimates. Bersih said the number was much higher.

Malaysia has been seized for more than a year by the 1MDB scandal, which has sparked investigations in several countries. Najib, 63, and 1MDB deny wrongdoing.

But the US Justice Department – which has filed lawsuits to recover assets it says were purchased with stolen 1MDB money -– laid out evidence showing an audacious campaign of fraud and theft that involved an unnamed top Malaysian official.

Riot police officers stand guard on a road to Merdeka Square. Photo: Bloomberg
Malaysian pro-government red shirts protesters march to counter the Bersih. Photo: EPA

A Malaysian Cabinet official has since admitted that individual was Najib.

Najib last year abruptly shut down Malaysian investigations, fired the attorney general and shored up his position by purging ruling-party critics.

On Friday, he condemned Bersih as a “deceitful” scheme “to unseat a democratically elected government”.

Police on Friday arrested Bersih leader Maria Chin Abdullah, one of several reformists and opposition politicians detained.

Lawyers said Chin was held under a 2013 security law that allows detention without charge for up to 28 days and has been criticised by rights groups as ripe for abuse.

Amnesty International called the arrests “the latest in a series of crude and heavy-handed attempts” to silence dissent.

It called Chin and other detainees “prisoners of conscience”.

Children wear ‘Bersih’ headbands. Photo: AFP
Activist and artist Fahmi Reza (right) and his friend mount a caricature poster depicting Najib with a clown face ahead of Bersih 5.0 Rally in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 17 November 2016. Photo: EPA

1MDB has intensified a sense of gloom among progressives and reform advocates who had already accused Najib of reneging on earlier promises to eliminate graft and end the 59-year-old ruling coalition’s repressive tendencies.

Critics, including former strongman ruler Mahathir Mohamad, accuse Najib of lurching toward autocracy to stifle the scandal with elections due within 18 months.

Human rights group Amnesty International slammed the crackdown and called for the immediate release of the Bersih activists, describing them as prisoners of conscience.

“These arrests are the latest in a series of crude and heavy-handed attempts to intimidate Malaysian civil society activists and other human rights defenders,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Mahathir tells crowd to ‘topple Najib’s cruel regime’
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