KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia's ruling party accused the opposition Wednesday of trying to topple the government by manufacturing its own version of an Arab Spring uprising through street protests. The criticism comes a day after Parliament's lower house passed a law banning street demonstrations and imposing other restrictions on rallies that rights groups have described as a threat to freedom of assembly. Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration has said the Peaceful Assembly Act — expected to be enacted as early as December — will help authorities preserve order while still allowing people to gather in places like stadiums and halls. Opposition lawmakers boycotted voting on the law, with their leaders claiming it was more repressive than ones in Myanmar and Zimbabwe and was intended to stifle dissent ahead of national elections widely anticipated next year. Khairy Jamaluddin, the youth wing leader of the ruling United Malays National Organization, said Wednesday that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's three-party alliance was "trying hard to manufacture panic and disorder" by promoting street rallies instead of relying on elections. "The opposition often quotes social movements in the Middle East to instigate people to take part in street revolutions and in the process manufacture a Malaysian version of the Arab Spring," Khairy said in a speech to his youth wing ahead of the ruling party's annual congress, which starts Thursday. "Despite the fact that our country is very different from the likes of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in the Middle East, the opposition continues to use this issue to fan the flames of discontent against the government," he said. Khairy urged ruling party members to unite against the opposition, adding that their congress this week would likely be the last one before general elections. Najib's coalition hopes to win back a large number of parliamentary seats and several states that Anwar's opposition alliance wrested in 2008 elections. The coalition currently rules with less than a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Opposition leaders accuse the government of maintaining an unfair advantage because officials have rejected many of their demands for an overhaul of voter registration lists and stricter measures to curb electoral fraud. More than 20,000 people marched in Kuala Lumpur in July, calling for greater electoral transparency, but authorities briefly arrested hundreds of them and used tear gas and chemical-laced water to try to disperse the demonstrators.
