The youth wing of ruling Malay party UMNO will not prohibit its members from participating in the “red shirt” Rally for Malay Dignity planned for September 16, according to its chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
Khairy, who is also Youth and Sports Minister and BN Youth chief, said this was in accordance with the opinion of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also UMNO president, who will neither endorse nor condemn the mass protest.
“I defer to the comments of the PM, let that represent the position of the party,” Khairy said outside Parliament today, as quoted by The Malay Mail Online‘s Kamles Kumar.
At a press conference after the UMNO Supreme Council meeting yesterday, Najib stated while UMNO would not endorse the rally, it would not bar its members from participating in it, as Malaysia was a “free country”.
The September 16 rally, ostensibly organised as a response to the #Bersih4 rally on August 29 and 30 and as a show of Malay unity and support for the Najib administration, has been denied permission to gather publicly by the Royal Malaysian Police.
The Rally for Malay Dignity is slated to take place in the Bukit Bintang and Petaling Street districts of KL, from 12 noon to midnight on September 16, Malaysia Day.
Malaysians have expressed concern at the racial nature of the proposed rally, and refute the red shirts’ claim that #BERSIH4, which saw a turnout of about 300,000 Malaysians, was a predominantly ethnic Chinese event.
