Police disrupted a street protest by confiscating balloons and leaflets after activists launched a campaign to urge Malaysians to wear yellow every Saturday to demand electoral reform. At least 10 members of a group were distributing the materials to the public at a busy train station in the capital Kuala Lumpur when police moved in.
Ronnie Lui, from the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), described the police action as a form of "intimidation and harassment." "I will say our street protest to promote a campaign to wear something yellow every Saturday was a success despite the police action. We manage to distribute the yellow balloons and ribbons before they stopped us."
"They also had threatened to arrest us," he added. A protest last Saturday demanding electoral reform drew 30,000 people despite rain and a police ban. The rally was suppressed by police with water cannons and tear gas.
But protesters managed to hand a memorandum to Malaysia's king, who is highly respected but has a largely ceremonial role and usually stays out of politics. The protest movement, a coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups called "Bersih" in the Malay language or "Clean", is pushing for reforms including a clean-up of the electoral roll and an end to postal votes.