Anwar didn't call, it was rally organsier who asked for him - source

Anwar Ibrahim is grateful that the organisers of rallies in Brickfields had cancelled their plans to hold a second protest today, said a source close to the PKR president.

However, the source denied it was Anwar who called the organiser Shankar Ganesh last night.

"He was the one who pled to speak to Anwar. So I advised him to stop selling Anwar's name.

"However, we are thankful that he cancelled the protest and listened to the advice of both Anwar and the police," the source told Malaysiakini.

"Anwar is also committed to looking at helping the Indian community as he is with all Malaysians," the source added.

Shankar last night released a statement announcing that today's protest was cancelled.

He said Anwar had called him, requesting the rally be called off, promising to help the Indian community,

Anwar had earlier released a statement, advising the rally be cancelled to avoid raising tensions in the country.

The rally was expected to address issues such as the unilateral conversion of minors, the ongoing presence in Malaysia of controversial preacher Zakir Naik, the distribution of funds allocated to the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) and the issue of statelessness and citizenship in the Indian community.

Yesterday, also in Brickfields, a rally was organised by other parties over the introduction of khat lessons for vernacular schools.

In a video released on social media today, Shanker repeated the claim that Anwar had called him at 10pm. He praised the PKR president as bring the only leader to reach out to him.

He said that he could have continued with the rally and become known as a leader but decided to call it off after considering the safety of others.

"I could have continued the rally and there would be people backing me up calling me a leader and all that. But right now, do I want to be popular or do we want to solve these (problems)? Which is more important?

"I want the people to have a voice, but their safety is also important. If I continued, many would have been arrested," Shanker said.

Tensions in Malaysia have been high over the past month.

First, the Education Ministry courted flak for pushing the introduction of khat lessons for Year 4 primary school students' Bahasa Malaysia syllabus.

They have since said that this would now be optional for vernacular schools, subject to the approval of parent-teacher associations. Some groups, however, remain unsatisfied with the compromise.

Meanwhile, controversial preacher Zakir raised the ire of Indian Malaysians for questioning their loyalty during an Aug 8 speech in Kelantan.

It was also reported that the preacher had referred to Chinese Malaysians as "old guests" at the same event.

The India-born preacher, who is being investigated by the police, claimed that his remarks were taken out of context and has since apologised. - Mkini