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| A photo taken over the weekend showing protestors challenging police during a mass rally in Kuala Lumpur. A Facebook petition has seen more than 170,000 people back a call for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to quit, days after an electoral reform rally was broken up by police firing tear gas. (AFP Photo) |
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Kuala Lumpur. A Facebook petition has seen more than 170,000 people back a call for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to quit, days after an electoral reform rally was broken up by police firing tear gas.
The page
titled “100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation” was set up on
Saturday, the same day police arrested more than 1,600 people during the mass
protest in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Backed by
opposition parties, electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 mobilised thousands of
people to hit the streets in the biggest rally in four years, piling the
pressure on Najib with elections widely expected next year.
Following
the demonstration, the page attracted around 300 “likes” per minute, hitting
its 100,000 target early Monday and the number has been steadily increasing
with the page showing 172,868 “likes” on Wednesday morning.
“I don’t
understand why the harshness, the beatings (by police) and the tear gas,”
according to a post by supporter Sofie Muhammad on the page.
“The crowd
didn’t even throw stones at the shops, why is the government afraid? All we
want is free elections.”
Others felt
the prime minister was too far removed from what was happening on the ground.
“Najib is
out of touch. He cannot understand pain of tear gas, irritation of chemical
water, pain of being kicked and beaten up by (police),” said Longyao Phang in
another posting.
Bersih
activists on Tuesday called for a royal probe into the electoral system, which
the opposition says favours Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled
Malaysia for half a century but saw its majority slashed in the previous
general election, in 2008.
Opposition
leader Anwar Ibrahim said the push by concerned democracy activists “augurs
well for the future of this country.”
“I would
appeal to them to continue to monitor developments, exercise their right, have
the courage of conviction to stand for what is right,” he added.
Najib, who
is in Britain on an official visit, has accused Anwar of masterminding the
rally and manipulating its organisers to beef up support for his ambition to
become the next prime minister.
The premier
and his administration have faced previous online attacks with a Facebook
petition in October calling for a million Malaysians to reject plans for a
100-storey megatower in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysians
are avid users of social network and micro-blogging sites.
A study by
global research firm TNS last year showed Malaysians to be the most popular
people on the Internet, with an average of 233 friends in their social networks
compared with 68 in China and just 29 in Japan.
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