Good Things that Came Out of Bersih 2.0 Rally

ARCHIVES 2011

By Aurora On Jul 11, 2011

By Kee Thuan Chye

WHAT the Bersih 2.0 rally of July 9 has shown is that Malaysians of all races are willing to risk arrest to speak up for their rights; that Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali is nothing but hot air and the media should no longer give him any attention; that Umno Youth is just a directionless bunch of brats; and, above all, that the Government is the biggest loser for mishandling the entire issue.

As it was, the rally turned out to be peaceful, as the organizers had pledged it would be. The only acts of violence were those committed by the police, when they attacked the protestors with teargas and water cannons although the latter did not provoke them. In retrospect, if the Government had allowed the rally to go on without fuss from the start – and it must be said that Bersih 2.0 (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) asked modestly for only two hours, from 2pm to 4pm – it would have just gone on without fuss, and everything would have been all right.

The Government would have been seen to be accommodating and benevolent, and not afraid of a call for fair elections. Instead, by choosing to clamp down on the rally even weeks before its scheduled date – in ways as brutal as detaining six people under the Emergency Ordinance and as absurd as arresting more than 200 people, some for merely wearing yellow T-shirts – it has lost immense favor and, some analysts say, the middle ground. It is also seen to be insecure, and irrational in its overreacting to the rally, surely not a trait of good governance.

Be that as it may, two positive things emerged from July 9.

One, the culture of fear that was forged during the time of Mahathir Mohamad is forever gone. If Malaysians were daring enough to defy the strong, repeated calls by the police and the Government to stay away from the Kuala Lumpur city center on July 9, they will not be intimidated any more by future threats as long as they know what they are doing is right and the Government is wrong.

Sure, pro-Government critics will argue that the Bersih 2.0 supporters did not comprise all Malaysians, but what is significant is that it comprised the knowing ones. In the history of revolutions, these are the ones who agitate for change and cause it to happen, not the ones who have been brainwashed by official propaganda.

Two, the most heartening feature about the rally is the composition of the protestors. They came from all races, young and old. They came from all over the country, including Sabah and Sarawak. Even a one-legged man walked (on crutches) for fair and free elections.

Many were the Chinese on the streets shouting “Hidup Bersih!” and “Hidup rakyat!”, giving the lie to Ibrahim Ali’s prediction that the Chinese would stay home. As it turned out, he was the one who stayed home!

After the event, the New Straits Times interviewed some Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer about his observations of the rally. When he said he did not see any Chinese there, he told a blatant lie. I was there and I saw a few thousand Chinese, if not more. Many were women, many were elderly. One of them said to me, “We are walking for our rights.” To see how wrong he is, this lecturer should go to youtube and type in “Bersih 2.0 at Petaling Street” and watch the video.

My friend, the writer-filmmaker Amir Muhammad, said it very well in response to the lecturer’s observation, “Maybe he meant that there were no Chinese because everyone there was MALAYSIAN.”

Indeed. Everyone there must have been a Malaysian who cared enough for the country to dare to defy the odds against them, in order to ask for their country to be set right again.