Malaysia Opposition, Rights Groups Rally
About 20,000 supporters of Malaysia’s opposition parties as well as leaders of rights groups gathered outside the capital Sunday to denounce a government crackdown on dissent.
In an unusual show of unity, leaders of four parties and more than a dozen nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, held a rally in Gombak, about 10 miles from Kuala Lumpur, the capital, to press for the repeal of a law used to detain dissident leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Although authorities had banned all public meetings, police allowed the peaceful rally, held at the local headquarters of the Muslim fundamentalist opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, on condition that it had to end by midnight.
It was the biggest political meeting since a rally a week earlier in central Kuala Lumpur at which former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar called for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to step down.
The large crowd shouted “Allahu Akbar!” (God is great!) as leaders of PAS, the Democratic Action Party and the Malaysian People’s Party took to the podium to attack the government and the crackdown.
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