KUALA LUMPUR - Thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Sunday pressed on with their peaceful protests in the Malaysian capital demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak amid accusations of corruption.
But the Malaysian premier was unimpressed by the overnight rallies, saying the government is capable of mobilising many more supporters if it was so inclined.
"What is 20,000? We can gather hundreds of thousands," he said in a speech before palm oil cultivators, locally known as Felda settlers, outside Kuala Lumpur. "Felda settlers alone could make the numbers."
"There might have been 20,000 people at the rally, as reported by some media, but I am sure only 20,000 are a little dissatisfied," he said. "The rest of the Malaysian population is with the government."
Najib has been under attack, even from within his ruling party, since a July report in the Wall Street Journal suggested that 673 million dollars in his accounts had been misappropriated from a state development fund.
The government denied the accusations, saying instead that the money was received as donations from unidentified sources in the Middle East.
The crowd in the centre of the capital remained peaceful and the mood was festive, despite the earnestness of their demand that Najib step down over the corruption accusations.
Some protesters even posed for photos with the police officers monitoring the demonstration areas.
"We are happy that the police have maintained a healthy distance," said Pang Chin Liu, a trader who was among the thousands of protesters. "We do not want any trouble, we just want to send out our message to the prime minister."