When prediction of tomorrow's ‘Turun Anwar' rally turnout ballons from '300k-500k' to '1 million'

Focus Malaysia

4 days ago

SO is this merely a scare tactic to send shock waves into the nerves of the Madani government or would the PAS-inspired Turun Anwar rally's primary target who is none other than Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ending up having the last laugh?
This came about after Opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin expects the public to turn up in droves at Dataran Merdeka – as many as one million – given Malaysians at large are purportedly unhappy with the PMX-helmed Madani government due to 'a thousand issues'.
'If there are 1,000 issues, it means there are 1,000 groups of people who are unhappy with the issues,' the Bersatu deputy president justified at a media conference held on the sidelines of the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday (July 25).
'Let's say each group has 1,000 people, then we have one million already.'
Hamzah who is also the Perikatan Nasional (PN) deputy chairman had earlier claimed that the frustration over PMX's leadership was shared by a number of civil society organisations (CSOs) and NGOs that approached the opposition recently.
'Several CSOs in this country had come to see us, including BERSIH, C4 Centre, IDEAS, Transparency International, Projek SAMA and several other NGOs,' the Larut MP elaborated.
'When they are unhappy, then there is a motivation to join the rally this Saturday (July 26). Many will be joining the rally, so do not be mad at us; the rakyat wants to protest because so many problems are accumulating.'
'Only for PMX to step down, not change of gov't'
Earlier on Tuesday (July 22), former UMNO warlord Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim has hailed the Turrun Anwar rally as 'mother of rallies'.
While police floated a modest estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 attendees, the now PAS lawmaker confidently predicted a turnout of 300,000 to 500,000 'which are enough to fill several stadiums and still spill onto the streets'.
In fact, the Arau MP proudly claimed on his Facebook page that following PMX's revelation of a meagre RM100 hand-out as part of the latter's 'extraordinary tribute for Malaysians' package, 'there has been more than 100 bookings for chartered bus (to come to Kuala Lumpur)'.
If both Hamzah's and Shahidan's projections do materialise tomorrow (July 26), then the Turun Anwar rally may well go down to The Malaysia Book of Records for having greatly overwhelmed the August 2015 BERSIH 4.0 rally which has often been dubbed as Malaysia's biggest street demonstration.
Recall that given conflicting figures between the organisers (500,000) and the police (only 50,000), independent social media research firm Politweet had estimated turnout to the rally held from 2pm on Saturday (Aug 29, 2015) to midnight Sunday (Aug 30, 2015) to be between 80,000 and 100,000.
'(Based on aerial shots), the total attendance for BERSIH 4 in Kuala Lumpur is estimated to have been between 79,919 and 108,125 people. It peaked on Aug 29 between 45,892-62,089 people,' it said in a study made available to Malay Mail Online back then.
Meanwhile, PAS Youth has reiterated that the Turun Anwar rally is only intended to demand the stepping down of PMX as opposed to staging a revolt against the Madani government.
In other words, the event is targeting PMX personally and not the unity government structure as a whole as per the explanation of PN Youth chief Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden.
'The Turun Anwar rally is to dethrone Anwar, the problematic individual in this country,' he told a media conference yesterday (July 24).
'In Pakatan Harapan (PH), BN (Barisan Nasional) has those who are good at doing the job; obviously bootlickers are to be exempted. But if there's no other (political) figures available, then we're prepared t0 fill the void.'
On the back of PMX's green light for the rally to proceed, city cops have mobilised the deployment of some 2,000 officers and personnel to manage the gathering and to ensure the safety of participants and the general public.
By the way, the police have thus far received 60 reports related to tomorrow's rally with 10 of those reports lodged in Kuala Lumpur, according to Acting Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Mohamed Usuf Jan Mohamad.
'We strongly advise against the following actions during the rally: carrying sharp or dangerous objects (eg knives, iron rods, wooden sticks) and bringing or setting off fireworks, flares or smoke bombs,' he warned.
'Do not display placards or banners containing elements related to race, religion or royalty (3R), make slanderous or false accusations, bring children to the assembly, engage in riots or disobey police orders.' – July 25, 2025
Main image credit: Pemuda PAS Malaysia/Facebook