Malaysia PM in a spot as thousands rally in protest

KUALA LUMPUR — More than 10,000 yellow-shirt protesters rallied on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur seeking Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s resignation over a financial scandal, undeterred by a police ban and the arrest of more than a dozen activists. Police barricaded key roads in downtown Kuala Lumpur with water-cannon trucks on standby, but it did not stop the protesters. Some chanted “Save Democracy” and “Bersih, Bersih” — the name of the electoral reform group that organized the rally. The name means “clean” in the Malay language. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been spearheading calls for Najib’s resignation, joined the rally, adding momentum to the demonstration. “Everybody feels concerned about the kind of government we have now,” said Mahathir, wearing a yellow Bersih shirt. “The government is very cowardly, trying to prevent a demonstration, which is the right of the people.” Najib, who is attending an Asia-Pacific summit in Lima, Peru, has kept an iron grip since corruption allegations emerged two years ago involving the indebted 1MDB state fund that he founded. 1MDB is at the center of investigations in the US and several other countries. Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing, has said he won’t be cowed by the rallies. In a statement on his blog, Najib called Bersih “deceitful” and said the group has become a tool for opposition parties to unseat a democratically elected government. “We want to see Malaysia more developed and not robbed of billions of ringgit,” singer Wan Aishah Wan Ariffin, an opposition supporter, said at the rally. — AP