Thousands Hold Anti-PM Rally in Malaysia; 17 Detained

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.

Bersih later told its supporters to move the rally outside the Kuala Lumpur City Center, one of the world's tallest twin towers, with police locking down Independent Square, where the protesters had been trying to gather. A smaller group of red-shirt pro-government supporters held a counter-rally in the city.

Police said in a statement that they raided the Bersih office Friday and detained its chairwoman, Maria Chin, for investigation into "activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy."

Thirteen other people, mostly politicians and activists, were also held to prevent rioting, police said, the Associated Press reported.

Those detained included ruling party politician Jamal Mohamad Yunos, whose supporters trooped to downtown to counter the Bersih rally. Police have banned both events by Bersih's yellow-shirt supporters and Jamal's red-shirt group.

Bersih said on Twitter that three other activists were nabbed Saturday.

It later said Chin was formally detained Saturday under a security law and can be held for a further 28 days. The other activists were remanded for several days in police custody.