Malaysia’s Red Shirts vow to confront anti-Najib protesters, warn of possible violence
Jamal Yunos and his “Red Shirts” group are widely dismissed as ruling-party thugs-for-hire who seek to suppress any moves against Najib over a huge graft scandal.
But Jamal’s confrontational tactics and racially charged rhetoric have stirred growing unease in a country where open political violence is rare.
Mobs of Red Shirts have assaulted reform advocates staging a weeks-long roadshow through Malaysia to highlight the corruption scandal.
“Anything can happen. I am not saying we will use violence. Anything can happen, including violence,” he said in an interview.
Malaysia’s often-acrimonious politics have been seized for more than a year by Najib’s alleged involvement in looting billions of dollars from state-owned fund 1MDB.
Authorities in several countries are investigating.
After Najib quashed domestic probes, leading civil-society alliance Bersih brought tens of thousands of its yellow-shirted supporters out for massive but peaceful demonstrations in August 2015.
It vows the same on November 19 despite authorities declaring the rally – and any Red Shirt counter-demonstration – illegal.
Despite wearing the crimson colours of Najib’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Jamal denies being bankrolled by the party, saying funding comes from his own various businesses.
Yet Jamal’s credibility has been hurt by his bizarre claims.
They include that Bersih – originally formed to press for electoral reform – is infiltrated by Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers and that Jews created the IS.
Any allegations against Najib, however, are false, said Jamal, who wore a snug-fitting paramilitary-style shirt, his Ray Ban glasses framing a penetrating gaze. In recent weeks, dozens of Red Shirts have demonstrated outside the offices of a leading independent news portal, accusing it of being a foreign front, drawing a warning from Amnesty International that the group was a threat to free speech.
“Bersih’s tactics have become more openly confrontational, and provoked more openly confrontational tactics form the Red Shirts. The government must recognise that this is an escalation,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia politics expert with Turkey’s Ipek University.
UMNO-led coalitions have dominated Muslim-majority Malaysia for decades but have steadily ceded ground in recent elections. The next polls are due within 18 months.
The Red Shirts embody the “desperation” of a hardline Malay elite fearful of losing power to moderate Malays and the Chinese minority, but the group likely enjoys little public support, Welsh said.
Malaysian police have vowed to prevent unrest on November 19, and Jamal’s threat to unleash 300,000 Red Shirts is widely dismissed. Najib, who has veered sharply right in recent years as his woes mounted, has not denounced the Red Shirts despite Jamal’s provocative comments, which include warning of a repeat of deadly May 1969 race riots that still haunt the multi-cultural nation.
“I, and the Reds group, also want to remind [people] that it is possible the [1969 racial riots] incident can happen again if political groups or Malaysians put their interest ahead of peace and harmony,” Jamal said.