(Al Jazeera) Opposition members of Malaysia’s parliament were met by riot police and threatened with arrest as they tried to march to the parliament building on Monday amid rising political tension over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parliament began a “special session” last week after a months-long shutdown that was triggered by a declaration of emergency in January because of COVID, with opposition politicians lambasting Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet over the continuing rise in cases and deaths despite months of an increasingly strict lockdown.
The session was supposed to continue into Monday but was cancelled after a number of COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Parliament.
Dozens of MPs instead gathered in Merdeka Square in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and former two-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, calling on Muhyuddin to resign. They planned to walk to Parliament two kilometres (1.2 miles) away.
