Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water on Saturday at
thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies
they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon.
At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia’s largest city in one
of the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest street rallies in the past
decade.
The demonstration reflected concerns that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s
ruling coalition which has held power for more than 50 years will have
an unfair upper hand in elections that could be called as early as June.
Activists have alleged that the Election Commission is biased and
claimed that voter registration lists are tainted with fraudulent
voters.
Demonstrators wearing yellow T-shirts poured into downtown Kuala Lumpur,
massing near a public square that police had sealed off with barbed
wire and barricades.
“I’m here because I’m a Malaysian and I love my country,” said
information technology manager Burrd Lim. “There’s no election that’s
perfect, but I want one that’s fair enough.”
Authorities said an opposition-backed pressure group that organized the
rally has no right to use Independence Square, a symbolically important
venue that hosts parades and high-profile celebrations.
The demonstration remained peaceful for several hours but turned chaotic
when some people apparently breached the barriers, prompting police to
fire tear gas and water laced with stinging chemicals at portions of the
crowd. Witnesses saw police detaining several people.
Federal police spokesman Rasdi Ramli estimated there were about 25,000
demonstrators, but many witnesses and some Malaysian news organizations
said there were far more. Independent news website Malaysiakini said
there was 100,000, while The Sun newspaper estimated 80,000.
The rally’s organizers also want longer election campaigning periods and
changes to ensure citizens living abroad can cast ballots, as well as
international observers for the polls and fairer access for all
political parties to the government—linked media.
Government officials and electoral authorities insist the activists’ concerns are overblown.
“We accept that there are issues,” Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said
late Friday. “We have worked very hard to address them, introducing a
raft of reforms to ensure that our country’s next election is the freest
and fairest ever.”
After an estimated 20,000 demonstrators staged a similar rally in Kuala
Lumpur last July, authorities established a panel to study electoral
regulations and agreed for voters to have their fingers stained with
indelible ink while casting ballots to curb fraud and multiple voting.
Authorities used tear gas and water cannons to break up July’s rally and briefly arrested about 1,600 demonstrators.
“Today is a major test case for basic freedoms in Malaysia, starting
with the right to peacefully march and assemble,” said Phil Robertson,
Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia.
Thousands of Malaysians living abroad and rights activists in dozens of
major cities in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States are
expected to also stage demonstrations Saturday in solidarity with those
in Kuala Lumpur.
Speculation has intensified that Najib might dissolve Parliament next
month and seek a new mandate in June, even though polls do not need to
be held until mid—2013.
The National Front, which has governed Malaysia since independence from
Britain in 1957, suffered its worst performance in 2008 elections, when
it lost more than a third of Parliament’s seats amid public discontent
over problems such as corruption and racial discrimination.
AP
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