What we need now is more than Bersih
We need a platform all Malaysians can invest in regardless of their political affiliations and racial backgrounds.
Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today
Last Saturday, I woke up earlier than is my wont on weekends. As friends began to stream into the house, dressed in yellow finery, I made sure I had packed salt, drinking water, and a waterproof bag.
Conversation focused around the latest inane comments from our ministers, and of course, the reason why we were even heading to the Bersih rally in the first place. That reason was Prime Minister Najib Razak. A general air of disdain and righteous indignation filled the room as we got ready to head to the nearest LRT station.
And so the clock struck 12 and we made our way, a merry group of Malaysians of all colours, but one in purpose. The ride down to KL was met by other participants, most already decked out in yellow, from all strata of society – but nearly homogeneous in terms of racial background. A little voice of doubt began to speak up in my heart. I feared not that Bersih 4 would be violent; I feared that it would not be what we needed it to be.
As the hours passed by and my friends and I made our way through the massive sea of yellow towards Dataran Merdeka, I saw little reason to doubt the assessment of that little voice. Sure enough, the next day government mouthpieces crowed about the lack of Malay support at Bersih 4. Najib must have been laughing with vindictive joy, knowing that Bersih could not muster the kind of support needed to force him to step down. That support would have to be a massive show of will from all the races of this country.
Don’t get me wrong. I marched with Bersih, intent on making my voice part of the people’s, to speak the truth to power, and to send an unequivocal statement to the Prime Minister that things must change. What I saw in the streets of Kuala Lumpur was inspiring in and of itself. I saw that Malaysians believed in something so much that they were willing to give up their free time to try to make a change. But we must face the fact that right now, Bersih is not the platform that we need it to be.
Bersih, for all its noble intentions, has become inseparable from the Opposition agenda and the non-Malay agenda, a perception only strengthened by the glaring lack of Malay presence on the ground. Previously, PAS would muster its grassroots, shouldering the massive cost of transporting its members in for the cause. The dismal Malay showing at Bersih 4 showed that DAP, PKR, and GHB simply do not have the appeal needed to muster the kind of showing PAS can.
I had a good conversation with my friend Megat on why the Malays were not on the ground. He explained that for the most part, a lot of Malays are petty traders and cannot afford to miss work, especially given the economic situation we find ourselves in, but this doesn’t mean that they are not angry with Najib, or that they do not support the cause to oust him as Prime Minister. If anything, they are just as angry, and had they half a chance, they would be in the streets too.
