A number of people who attended the red shirts rally near Malaysiakini’s office in Petaling Jaya yesterday appeared to be somewhat uncertain of the purpose of the event.

According to one middle-aged woman, who declined to be named, she and her friends were invited to the event to make up the numbers.

“We don’t know (what the rally is for). Perhaps we are here to support the Malays,” said the woman.

She said that her group, comprising 80 people, was bussed in from Sungai Buloh.

There were a large number of youths, some who admitted being teenagers, who participated in the rally.

One admitted that he was 18-years-old while another said he was 14. Both said they and their friends were bussed in from Meru.

One of the teenagers claimed that he was paid to show up. It could not be verified if the same was true for the others.

'Seeking limelight'

Meanwhile, one participant, who claimed to be from Bangsar, said he disagreed with allegations against Malaysiakini that were made by Sungai Besar Umno division head Jamal Md Yunos, who leads the red shirts.

He claimed that he was a regular Malaysiakini reader and does not believe in allegations that the news organisation was trying to topple the government.

“This (rally) is a question of politics. Everyone is trying to use some platform to make a name for himself and to impress his leaders,” said the man, who observed the rally with his wife and 10-year-old child.

The man said Malaysia was a democracy and both the red shirts and Malaysiakini were exercising their rights in accordance to the law.

“Everyone has the right to assemble peacefully. We can’t reprimand them for rallying.

“Malaysiakini should not be reprimanded also, because their editors practice democracy. They even met with the red shirts,” he said.

During the rally, the red shirts demanded that Malaysiakini be shut down because it had once received funding from the Open Society Foundation (OSF), an organisation run by billionaire George Soros that gives grants.

Jamal had claimed that Soros was responsible for the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, funded revolutions in parts of the world and was now trying to interfere with Malaysia’s elections.

On Thursday, Jamal met Malaysiakini’s top editors and was told that OSF's funding only constitutes a small portion of the company’s revenue, which relied mostly on subscription and advertising.

Malaysiakini had previously explained that the funds from OSF was only used to help produce KiniTV's documentary programmes on Sarawak.