KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — After being stopped twice by police, some 100 members of a group calling itself Pemantau Malaysia Baru (PMB) finally decided to abandon their march to Parliament today.
Led by Umno supreme council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam, the group had sought to demonstrate their support for Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V who is delivering his royal address in the Dewan Rakyat this morning. PMB previously claimed the King had lost his voice to defend the Malays.
The group members had gathered at the Bukit Aman police headquarters parking lot porch from as early as 7am.
Dressed predominantly black attire, the demonstrators had last week said the march was also to protest an unsubstantiated allegation that the DAP wanted to make Christianity the official religion in Malaysia.
Police stepped in to stop the group at 8.30am when they started to move out form the carpark, after motivational speeches from Umno Youth executive council member Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz and artiste Elly Suriaty Omar.
It is understood that police had stopped the group from marching citing reasons of safety and possible traffic obstructions with the morning rush hour traffic flow in the surrounding access roads.
Lokman was then seen negotiating with officers from the Dang Wangi district police headquarters, where a resolution between the police and protestors was thought to have been met.
However, the Light Strike Force, a police unit normally deployed for crowd control, were seen standing on guard and in formation where the crowd had convenened the entire length of the gathering.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Lokman said the group would stand down and stop their attempted march to Parliament.
“We tried twice, but both times the police stopped us. I asked them to cite which law they were exercising, but they failed to clarify,” he said.
“They are just doing their job, but I believe they were under direct instructions from the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“We do not know why, but it could be because he is afraid of us showing our allegiance to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong,” Lokman alleged.
Last week, Lokman had claimed the protesters would march with their mouths covered by tape and hands bound, a symbol to imply the lost of power suffered by the King, had the protest gone through.
This follows outcry by pro-Muslim groups and political parties over the appointments of several non-Muslim individuals into ranking positions of government institutions and the Cabinet
