KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of Malaysian demonstrators turned central Kuala Lumpur yellow for a second straight day yesterday with a rally demanding Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s resignation over an alleged corruption scandal.
The two-day rally, one of Malaysia’s largest in years, has been mostly incident-free even though police declared it illegal, blocked the organisers’ website and banned their official bright yellow T-shirt and logo.
Thousands awoke from a night camping out near the Merdeka Square and were soon joined by thousands more as a carnival-like mix of speeches, sing-a-longs, prayer and selfie-taking resumed.
The numbers appeared not to match Saturday’s, when organisers – electoral-reform activist group Bersih – said 200,000 turned out, while police put the number at 29,000.
“I am here to demand transparency. I want to protect the rights of my children. This country is heading for bankruptcy,” said Mustapha Abdul Jalil, 40, a businessman.
Najib is under fire after the Wall Street Journal last month published Malaysian documents showing nearly RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his personal bank accounts beginning in 2013. His cabinet ministers have called the transfers ‘political donations’ from unidentified Middle Eastern sources.
But the accounts have been closed and the fate of the money is undisclosed.
Najib denies all wrongdoing, alleging a ‘political conspiracy’ to topple him.
With smaller anti-Najib rallies held in several other locations around the country, Bernama reported 12 people were arrested in the city of Malacca for wearing Bersih shirts. All were later released, it said. It was not clear what charges they would face. — AFP