I have avoided the Bersih topic of late. What is my take?
1. If you get to read this, then you and I are privileged. Privileged that we have internet access, the only free media in Malaysia. We are also privileged that you know how to access your internet, that we are open-minded enough to read materials that may or may not agree to your stand. So often, privileged ones tend to overlook things. In this case, sometimes we may feel the internet penetration in Malaysia is high, but there are still a lot of Malaysians who are not exposed to this solitary free media. That is why online surveys are always skewed.
2. Malaysia implements democracy and elections every certain period of time. If any citizen is dissatisfied with the governance of the country, one always have the right to vote and choose the government they want.
3. But what if voting won’t change anything? Too bad, because that’s how democracy works, right? The majority wins, right? But what if the playing field is not equal? Malaysia is listed as flawed democracy, I would not delve into the criteria that make our democracy flawed. But it is only righteous that any party who would rule the country shall win the election fair and square.
4. What if the struggle to achieve fair elections was repeatedly ignored? Or anyone with such concern does not have a channel to express it (despite the constitutional right to freedom of speech)? They’ll try to invoke their other constitutional right – the right to assemble. Not only they get to express their concerns and demands, they get to gather a crowd who would otherwise be scared to express it themselves when alone, they’ll get publicity, albeit at a cost of getting out of their comfort zone.
5. What if the assembly becomes ‘unpeaceful’? This is called the mob mentality or mob behaviour. An individual have their moral values and wary of public opinions toward them and the repercussions of their actions. But an individual in a crowd becomes anonymous and their responsibility gets diluted/diffused. Performing antisocial behaviour such as vandalism under anynomity is much easier, and to a certain extent may be encouraged by the mob mentality. Specifically on this Bersih issue, it can be observed on both sides, the yellow Bersih as well as the red Anti-Bersih.
6. However, this is what the Bersih organizers does not want. They have explicitly stressed that they do not welcome troublemakers as that would divert unwanted attention from their demands.
7. This mob mentality can be subdued with good planning, good management such as security. In fact, the organizers have even mobilized their own security, and on top of that, the police themselves will ensure further security. However, the security must ensure their task is always to subdue/stop any possible violence or property damage, not to intimidate or instill fear or worst, to initiate violence.
8. Unfortunately, that is what the government, government-controlled media and the authorities have done, intimidation and fear-mongering. Some media even went to the extent of hate-incitement, suggesting racial motives/agenda, and even encouraging military intervention.
The Tiananmen Square 1989 ‘Tank Man’s vivid imagery comes to mind. I thought it was a no-brainer everyone who sees that image would surely be on the man’s side. Now I realize there might be some people on the tank side.
9. Another analogy is the collective punishment I experienced at school. For example, someone vomited at the corridor and left it uncleaned. The seniors found out but no one would admit it. So they punished all juniors and will say, “Don’t blame us for punishing you, blame your friend for not admitting it.” Rather than having the resentment towards them the punishers, they tried to divert the resentment towards the punished. Back then, it did not succeed. But with powerful one-sided media, you can. I’ve seen widespread success of people resenting the assembly for causing the police to make roadblocks or unwarranted arrests (such as the non-crime of wearing yellow), when actually things can proceed just any other day, public services and even private outlets can always open if there was no fear-mongering or government instructions to halt services.
10. But do I agree with Bersih 4.0? The demands by Bersih have evolved, or rather grown. The first Bersih demanded the cleaning up of electoral poll, use of indellible ink, abolition of postal voting for military and police, and free and fair access to mass media for all parties. Bersih 2.0 said the original Bersih demands were not met, and on top of that, added a few more, including minimum twenty-one days of campaign, strengthening public institutions, no corruption and no dirty politics. Bersih 3.0 demanded the resignation of Election Commission and international observations on top of the previous unfulfilled eight demands. Bersih 4.0’s official demands are free and fair elections, transparent government, right to demonstrate, strengthening parliamentary democracy system and saving the national economy. However, it has strongly become the assembly to demand the resignation of Najib Razak. This is where I disagree. As much as everyone else, I would love to see Najib resigning, and even though public opinions are very visible toward him, I may agree that a demonstration might send a stronger message than comments on Facebook. But the demonstration had already been done on 1 Aug 2015, and it is very evident that he is not backing down. I would prefer Bersih to stay to their roots to demand a clean and fair elections. Bersih 4.0 demands are too general and vague. Specific demands they tabled on the previous versions are better, more practical to be monitored.
11. Is Putrajaya a better venue? I would say the venue is irrelevant. Things should have proceeded like any other day, had there been no fear-mongering. I’m sure the organizers preferred Kuala Lumpur (KL) due to its bigger pull factor and bigger attention.
11. Lastly, for those who do wish to join, please take uttermost care of your safety and security. I’m very concerned of their security. This time, there’s a camp out, where people will be sleeping, and very vulnerable. I pray hard that I will see the best of this country, rather than the worst.
Mohd Najmie 