{"id":60266,"date":"2015-08-30T13:35:34","date_gmt":"2015-08-30T05:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=60266"},"modified":"2015-08-30T13:37:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-30T05:37:39","slug":"huge-malaysia-rally-for-najibs-resignation-enters-2nd-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/08\/30\/huge-malaysia-rally-for-najibs-resignation-enters-2nd-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Malaysia rally for Najib&#8217;s resignation enters 2nd day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/485719538?et=kaNREdXTQ_BPfqZZzLKgHQ&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=ywlh5uX02CllC71E0l02DW3DCFZw9y1qt4V6U7wIgl0=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0 0 0 10px; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/485719538\" target=\"_blank\">View image<\/a> | <a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\" target=\"_blank\">gettyimages.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia \u2014 Big crowds of protesters returned to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to demand the resignation of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak over a financial scandal, after the first day of the massive rally passed peacefully.<\/p>\n<p>The protesters camped overnight wearing yellow shirts of the Bersih movement \u2014 the coalition for clean and fair elections \u2014 even after authorities blocked the organizer&#8217;s website and banned yellow attire and the group&#8217;s logo in a bid to deter the rallies, which were also held in other Malaysian cities.<\/p>\n<p>Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been spearheading calls for Najib&#8217;s resignation, added momentum to the rally when he made a surprise brief appearance late Saturday with his wife to loud cheers from the crowd, and telling protesters to &#8220;carry on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Najib has been fighting for political survival after leaked documents in July showed he received some $700 million in his private accounts from entities linked to indebted state fund 1MDB. He later said the money was a donation from the Middle East, fired his critical deputy and four other Cabinet members as well as the attorney general investigating him.<\/p>\n<p>He slammed the protests for tarnishing Malaysia&#8217;s image.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those who wear this yellow attire &#8230; they want to discredit our good name, scribble black coal on Malaysia&#8217;s face to the outside world,&#8221; Najib was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama.<\/p>\n<p>Police estimated Saturday&#8217;s crowd at 25,000, while Bersih says 200,000 participated at its peak. The rally was scheduled to last until midnight Sunday to usher in Malaysia&#8217;s 58th National Day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a watershed moment. Malaysians are united in their anger at the mismanagement of this country. We are saying loudly that there should be a change in the leadership,&#8221; said protester Azrul Khalib, who slept on the street with his friends.<\/p>\n<p>He said he was aware that the rally will not bring change overnight, but he wants to be &#8220;part of efforts to build a new Malaysia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some used colored chalks to scrawl their demands on the street: &#8220;We want change,&#8221; and &#8220;We want clean and fair (elections).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Scores of police barricaded roads leading to the Independence Square, a national landmark that authorities declared off-limits to protesters ahead of the national day celebrations on Monday. Previous two Bersih rallies, in 2011 and 2012, were dispersed by police using tear gas and water cannons.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts said the rally attracted a largely urban crowd with a smaller participation of ethnic Malays, which could be the reason why the Najib government allowed it to go on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They feel safe because it has not really affected the rural Malay segment, their bedrock support,&#8221; said political analyst Ibrahim Suffian. However, he said this doesn&#8217;t mean that rural Malays are happy with the government, as many are upset with the plunging currency and economic slowdown.<\/p>\n<p>A nation of 30 million, Malaysia is predominantly Malay Muslim with significant Chinese and Indian minorities. Its ambitions to rise from a middle income to a developed nation this decade have been stymied by slow-paced reforms and Najib&#8217;s increasing authoritarianism.<\/p>\n<p>Support for Najib&#8217;s National Front has eroded in the last two general elections. It won in 2013, but lost the popular vote for the first time to an opposition alliance.<\/p>\n<p>Concerns over the political scandal partly contributed to the Malaysian currency plunging to a 17-year low beyond 4 ringgit to the dollar earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from Najib&#8217;s resignation, the demands being sought are institutional reforms that will make the government more transparent and accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View image | gettyimages.com KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia \u2014 Big crowds of protesters returned to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":60281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,483,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-politics","category-news-w","mauthors-eileen-ng","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}