Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday faced his biggest rally since taking power in May, as opposition parties led thousands of ethnic Malays in Kuala Lumpur to protest a UN convention against racial discrimination.
The capital was flooded with protesters dressed in white, who were bused in from around the country to assemble from yesterday afternoon.
The United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which lost its six-decade hold on power in the general election, had vowed to bring 200,000 supporters, and said its co-organizer the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) would mobilize another 300,000.
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) became a hot-button issue last month. Malay-based opposition parties and groups voiced fears that it would threaten Islam’s position as the official religion and erode the special privileges of the Malays, which make up the biggest ethnic community in Malaysia.
“The anti-ICERD rally is meant to be a show of strength by the country’s two largest Malay political parties,” said Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, an analyst with BowerGroupAsia risk consultancy, referring to PAS and UMNO. “It will be a numbers game and the crowd size will reflect the strength of the UMNO-PAS partnership.”
About 30 percent of Malay voters supported the ruling Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, in the general election, a Merdeka Center survey released in June showed, underscoring the shaky support Mahathir has from the country’s biggest ethnic group.
Rumbles of concern over threats to the Malay-Muslim identity and religion have increased since the poll, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute visiting fellow Serina Rahman wrote in September.
People’s Justice Party president Anwar Ibrahim last month said concerns over ICERD were “real” and its ratification should be postponed.
“They are worried that the principles in our constitution are not accepted and threatened at the international level,” he said on Nov. 18, even as he maintained he was anti-discrimination.
When Malaysia reversed its decision to ratify ICERD on Nov. 23 after mounting backlash, organizers of the rally shifted gears. The assembly, initially meant to pressure the government not to ratify the convention, would go on, its organizers said, with the new aim of “thanking” the government for aborting ICERD.
The government was not supportive of the gathering.
Malaysian Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng said the rally was irrelevant, Anwar said it was inappropriate and People’s Justice Party Legislator Fahmi Fadzil said the organizers should instead debate the matter in parliament.
Singapore on Friday issued a travel advisory to defer all non-essential travel to Kuala Lumpur and warned of possible skirmishes.
A second gathering on human rights that was scheduled to take place yesterday was postponed until today over security concerns, Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Chairman Razali Ismail said in a statement.
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