Our weak will for change
(MMO) – The government thrives on inertia. It’s tolerated so many street rallies that another demonstration will be nothing more than a blip on the radar.
The country’s institutions are under attack, the ringgit is plunging to 1998 levels, and those in power appear to get away with everything, but still, activists, liberals and ordinary Malaysians don’t seem to want change badly enough.
Bersih drew tens of thousands of protesters with its three previous street rallies calling for free and fair elections. Now, they’re planning to hold an overnight rally at the end of the month at Dataran Merdeka, demanding not just for clean elections this time, but also for the prime minister’s resignation.
Plus four other vague demands, namely: a clean government, the right to dissent, strengthen Parliamentary democracy, and save the economy.
It’s not really a problem that Bersih has deviated from its original aim for a clean election process, though the electoral watchdog insists that the Bersih 4 rally remains within its core objectives. After all, circumstances change and if institutions are failing, perhaps Malaysians can’t afford to wait for another couple of years for the next general election.
Indonesians and Filipinos have rallied and overthrown their leaders in the past. Students held several rallies for three months and also occupied the Indonesian Parliament for three days until Suharto resigned in 1998. It similarly took several rallies to overthrow Marcos in 1986 after the assassination of his political rival, Benigno Aquino, in 1983.
In more recent times, students occupied the streets of Hong Kong for almost three months last year in the Umbrella Revolution to demand free elections. The Hong Kong legislature later rejected last June a Beijing-based electoral reform proposal on selecting the city’s chief executive that pro-democracy activists have criticised as undemocratic.
It takes months and even years to oust an unpopular leader or to fight for change. So why doesn’t Bersih call for Malaysians to occupy the streets, be it in Dataran, Parliament or even the prime minister’s office in Putrajaya, until the prime minister resigns or until the reforms they want are implemented? Is it because Malaysians don’t have the will to camp for days?
Bersih should be straightforward and clear about their demands, instead of dithering between going all out in pushing the prime minister from office and being satisfied with just Instagram and Facebook posts of their two-day rally. Better visuals if there’s tear gas and water cannons.
Malaysian activists and liberals cannot hope to achieve what they want by just rallying for two days and then going back to sipping overpriced lattes in Bangsar. Malaysian citizens, similarly, can’t just sleep for a single night at Dataran, boast about braving water cannons, upload pictures on social media, and then return to bitching about the government on Facebook. All this changes nothing.
