Not like the PAS-t rallies
The sizeable Malay crowd in the previous rallies was clearly missing this time round and the lack of demographic mix is a cause for concern for some.
Shahanaaz Habib, The Star
UNIVERSITY student Haziq Aziz is quite a fan of the Bersih protest rallies. He attended Bersih 2 and Bersih 3 and says those were “very balanced and multi-racial”.
But he noticed that the Bersih 4 rally yesterday was a bit different.
“I went to Dataran Merdeka, Pasar Seni, Petaling Street. Everywhere, it was dominated by the Chinese. It was weird and I felt out of place,” admits the 23-year-old law student who came to the rally with several of his Malay friends.
For Haziq, it is very clear now that the sizeable Malay crowd at the Bersih rallies in the past had been mobilised by PAS.
This time round for Bersih 4, PAS had said it will not mobilise its members. And this showed in the significantly lower number of Malays who turned up.
“I believe there must be political co-operation between the political parties to mobilise the crowds,” he says.
The PAS splinter group, Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB), was just not able to draw in the Malay crowd. Perhaps it is because GHB is in still very much in its infancy and is not even registered as a political party.
GHB secretary Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who was the executive director of the PAS research centre, acknowledges that PAS has always been the backbone of the Bersih demonstrations, adding that its pulling out of it has had an undeniable impact.
“There is no need to be apologetic about that. It is quite obvious that the PAS crowd wasn’t there,” he says.
PAS members, he notes, were split in their opinion whether to show up for Bersih 4 in their individual capacity because they did not want to be seen as going against their party.
“How I wish that Bersih 4 was to be held only after our (GHB) launch as a political party. We are still not ‘born yet’,” he says.
Dr Dzulkefly believes that some Malays fear showing up this time round because of all the negative “propaganda” in the news against the rally.
Some youths, he says, were afraid that their scholarship would be withdrawn.
“I saw that kind of anxiety and concern among some of my own siblings and their children,” he said.
He says however, he is not disappointed with the turnout of the Malays as this time round, he is seeing the emergence of a new segment of Malays who are discerning and interested in a moderate “middle Malaysia” and a more inclusive approach of Islam.
“I have yet to fathom and dissect what is happening but to me, what is significant is that there is more of a qualitative than a quantitative aspect.
“We saw that the silent majority are starting to come out,” he said.
Ong, who owns a business and who has been to all the Bersih rallies, noticed very early on the lack of Malay participation and he finds it a little worrying.
Just as the rally kicked off at noon yesterday, he looked around and found the lack of “demographic mix” a concern.
He too has questions why the Malays chose to stay away at a time when the country is grappling with economic issues like the GST, rising prices, depreciation of the ringgit against the US dollar and the 1MDB issue.
For Steve and Gladys, this was their “virgin” Bersih rally.
In the past, they did not attend such rallies because they did not consider the issue to be of their concern.
“But I’m here this time because the currency has dropped so bad that it is affecting everybody. We can’t raise our prices because everyone is hit so bad and consumers can’t afford to buy,” says Steve who is in the optical industry and imports a lot of products priced in US dollars.
He says the depreciation of the ringgit and foreign flow of funds is scaring the older generation in particular.
“Many people are changing the ringgit into US dollars because they fear it will drop further,” says 35-year-old Steve.
He, too, has increased his stock of US dollars by 20% because he deals with a lot of imports and does not want to lose out from the exchange rate if the ringgit plunges even further.
Haziq, while he feels out of place at the Bersih 4 rally as there were so few Malays around, will not stop attending more rallies in the future.
“I agree with the cause Bersih is fighting for. This won’t stop me,” he says.
As people continue to discuss and debate the lack of the Malay turnout at Bersih 4, it received a major boost when former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali showed up at night and stayed for a few minutes.
