Police to seal off Kuala Lumpur to head off mass rally against Malaysian anti-graft chief

Major roads to be blocked and metro services suspended in bid to prevent a protest demanding resignation of MACC chief Azam Baki over a share-trading controversy

Police say the planned rally is ‘clearly against the law’ and contravenes Covid rules, but their response has been lampooned on social media

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A poster for the protest planned against Malaysia’s anti-corruption chief. Photo: Internet

Published: 8:00pm, 21 Jan 2022

Malaysian police have said they will seal off major thoroughfares and suspend services in 24 metro stations around downtown Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to prevent a mass rally against the country’s under-fire anti-graft chief, with officials warning the demonstration is “against the law”.

Civil society groups and the youth wings of major opposition parties had planned a protest at 11am on Saturday to call for the immediate resignation of Azam Baki, the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, over a recent share-trading controversy.

Social media had earlier on Friday been abuzz with speculation about the near-total shutdown of Kuala Lumpur to prevent the rally. More than 1,000 police are to be deployed to enforce the measures.

Mass demonstrations are legal – if advance notice is given to the police – and have been quite common in Malaysia in recent years, though authorities have barred gatherings since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Activists say the government of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin have used the public health crisis as a foil to deter mass gatherings amid rising dissent against their policies.

Noor Dellhan Yahaya, the police chief of Kuala Lumpur’s Dang Wangi district, said in a press conference that the planned assembly was “clearly against the law” as authorities had not received notice from any individual or group under the Peaceful Assembly Act.