Malaysia: Activists Rally in Capital Amid Mounting Arrests

Muzliza Mustafa and Hadi Azmi
2016.11.19
Kuala Lumpur
161119-MY-Bersih-1000 Bersih activists march in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 19, 2016.
Hadi Azmi/BenarNews

Thousands of yellow-clad Malaysian protestors rallied Saturday in downtown Kuala Lumpur, where they called for upholding parliamentary democracy and criticized the rule of a prime minister clouded by corruption allegations.

The Bersih 5 rally took place although the leader of the grassroots movement as well as several other organizers and supporters were arrested ahead of the demonstration, and some scuffles and confrontations with activists from a pro-government group occurred during the day.

At least 13 people were taken into custody in pre-rally arrests on Friday and early Saturday, including the leader of the so-called Red Shirts, an activist group that supports the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Eight more people were reported arrested on Saturday, including three opposition politicians who were being investigated under laws that prohibit the incitement of riots.

As Bersih protestors marched toward the venue for the rally, police barricades blocked them from accessing Independence Square, a symbolic spot in the Malaysian capital where they had intended to rally. Instead, they changed course and staged their demonstration in front of an iconic Kuala Lumpur landmark, the twin skyscrapers of the Petronas Towers (pictured below).

The number of Bersih protestors who turned out ranged from 10,000 to 40,000, according to news reports, but Kuala Lumpur police put their number at 15,500.

“We will stop here. The crowd is so big and we cannot afford to allow people to get hurt. This is already a feat,” former Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenivasan told a crowd of protestors at one of the barricades along the approaches to the square. All roads leading there were cordoned off and guarded by thousands of police and anti-riot personnel.

At the plaza outside the towers, thousands in the crowd sat and chanted slogans, which called for Najib to resign over a corruption scandal tied to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib has denied allegations of wrongdoing over nearly U.S. $700 million in 1MDB-linked money deposited into his bank accounts in 2013. On Friday, the prime minister flew abroad to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru.

At the rally held under monsoonal clouds, people chanted “Hidup Rakyat!” (“long live the people”), as opposition leaders and other speakers took turns at the microphone.    

“This is what is called undermining democracy. It is not Bersih who is stopping democracy, but the government,” former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Najib’s fiercest critic, told the crowd, referring to the barricades near Independence Square.

“This is not against democratic principles. This is Malaysia, and it belongs to all of us,” former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, whom Najib sacked last year for criticizing him in public about 1MDB, said when it came to him to speak.

The Bersih rally ended at 5:30 p.m.

‘Most Malaysians are keeping quiet’

The Red Shirts had threatened to mobilize some 300,000 of their members for a simultaneous counter-protest in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, but Malaysian authorities on Thursday declared the two rallies illegal, warning both groups to cancel them. According to police, only 2,500 Red Shirts showed up on Saturday.

Zainuri Zainal, the chief of the youth wing for the Red Shirts, nonetheless declared the group’s presence on Saturday a success, saying they had helped prevent the Bersih people from accessing Independence Square.

“They know we are here to ‘control’ and to stop them, and we have managed to do that. We are here to help the police,” he said.

On the other side, the rally by Bersih was far smaller than the one it had staged over two days last year, in which some 200,000 protestors converged on Kuala Lumpur to protest against the 1MDB scandal. Bersih is a coalition of Malaysian NGOs, whose supporters wear yellow T-shirts and advocate transparent government, free and fair elections, institutional reforms to strengthen parliamentary democracy and the right to dissent, among other causes.

“A million will only turn up when their stomachs are getting empty. I’m sad. Most Malaysians are keeping quiet,” a retired army officer, who took part in Saturday’s Bersih rally and requested anonymity, told BenarNews.

Two days earlier, Malaysia’s Chief Secretary to the Government, Ali Hamsa, had warned the nation’s 1.6 million civil servants to stay away from Saturday’s protests or face disciplinary action, including termination or pay cuts, reports said.

Pro-government Red Shirts march in the Malaysian capital, Nov. 19, 2016. [Muzliza Mustafa/BenarNews]

More arrests

On Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi amplified the government’s warning that it would act sternly toward organizers of the two protests.

“There is no issue of abuse of power because those arrested do not come from one side. More will be arrested,” state news agency Bernama quoted Zahid as saying.

In the evening, the chief of Kuala Lumpur police announced that six people were arrested during the protests. Three were being investigated for attempting to incite rioting, including Armand Azha Abu Hanifah, a leader of the Red Shirts and official from UMNO’s youth office, and Howard Lee Chuan How, an assemblyman from the opposition Democratic Action Party.

Among the others, one was arrested for flying a drone during the Bersih rally, a second man was arrested for carrying a machete and brass knuckles, and a third was picked up for attacking a Bersih supporter, Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Amar Singh Ishar Singh said in a statement.

“As of 6 p.m., the situation in Kuala Lumpur, especially at Independence Square, is under control with protestors having dispersed,” he said.

Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, who praised the police force for maintaining law and order on Saturday through messages posted on Twitter, could not be reached for comment about all the arrests related to the protests.

Late on Saturday night, two senior leaders of the opposition People’s Justice Party (PKR) were arrested at their homes in connection with the Bersih rally, including PKR Vice President Tian Chua, The Star newspaper reported.

Earlier in the day, a court remanded Jamal Md Yunos, the firebrand leader of the Red Shirts, to four days in police custody as part of an investigation into an alleged skirmish that he had with police officers on Nov. 13 during an incident involving MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, one of the two PKR officials picked up on Saturday night.

Apart from Bersih chairwoman Maria Chin Abudullah, who was picked up on Friday, the 11 others, who were also arrested before the rallies took place, including two other Red Shirt activists, were all remanded Saturday to four days in police custody, local media reported.

As for the leader of Bersih, who was initially arrested on suspicion of alleged activities deemed “detrimental to parliamentary democracy,” she was now being investigated under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA), which could allow police to hold her for 28 days without charges, according to Lawyers for Liberty, a local NGO.

“We are shocked and appalled by this abuse of power," Lawyers for Liberty tweeted on Saturday.

[Hadi Azmi/BenarNews]

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