Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has once again urged Malaysians to attend the March 27 gathering to protest against the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

In his latest blog posting, he said the people must be courageous and gave his assurance that the venue would be large enough to accommodate the crowd.

Responding to a question, the former Umno lawmaker told Malaysiakini that he does not expect a mammoth number.

"If 100,000 people want to come, we can even do it 20 more times.

"It will remain in an indoor venue because we want to talk. It will be more conducive to talk in such a venue," he added.

As for the venue, Zaid said he has not decided on this as the gathering is still a month away.

Previously, the former minister denied the gathering would be a public rally, stating he was not like the electoral watchdog Bersih.

He said this after receiving a warning from inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar.

In his blog post, Zaid also defended former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad against criticisms of actions and policies during his long tenure.

He argued that Mahathir entered the political realm during a different era and urged all quarters to cast aside distrust and join hands to remove the current prime minister.

"The question is simple: do you believe Mahathir, Muhyiddin Yassin, Lim Kit Siang, Azmin Ali, Mat Sabu, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man - not to mention many young Malaysians - are sincere in wanting to save the country?

"Do you not think they want to protect and defend the honour and integrity of the country, which have been so much compromised? Do you not think that Najib is the source of the problem?

"If the answers to these are 'yes', then we have to start from scratch, be brave and assemble on March 27 as rakyat, so we can tell other Malaysians that the time has come to declare that the future of the country is in our hands. We will not abandon Malaysia.

"The people must promise to be united to make Malaysia great. We must not waste time dabbling in the past. Let bygones be bygones," Zaid added.