Thousands of ordinary folk stand up for change

Writing this column compels me to bear witness to some momentous events in our nation's history. Yesterday, I bore personal testimony to the massive Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur.

There was considerable police presence throughout the nation's capital. By the morning of July 9, Kuala Lumpur was like a ghost town, a far cry from the bustling ambience of this, the largest city in Malaysia.

Suddenly, at about 1pm, large crowds of people began to materialise, as if out of thin air. The jostling hordes of humanity began to choke up the streets, and every crossing was filled with a mass of people.

There were shouting Bersih slogans and punching the air with their fists. The milling crowds were dispersed at their various points of gathering.

Some were wearing yellow T shirts. I estimated that in the city centre, no less than 50,000 people had gathered in different combinations and locations.

Unlike the Bersih rally in 2007, the gathering this year has drawn a mixed crowd of many races. Frankly, I was surprised to see a big Chinese crowd there, because I know that the Chinese are never keen on joining mass demonstrations as a rule.

The presence of large numbers of Indians was also a unique future this year. This was a truly multi-racial call for clean and fair elections.

Struck by batons

Presently, police personnel moved into the crowd, and then started beating the protestors down with their batons. Everywhere, the air was thick with the smoke of tear gas, as the crowds ran to escape the suffocation of the smoke bombs.

But sooner or later, after temporarily dispersing, they regrouped, and so the confusion in the huge space of public protest, spread over in the centre of the city, sank into pandemonium again, when the police renewed their attack.

I had witnessed, too, the Bersih demonstration back in 2007, but the gathering this year was much more massive yet more orderly, showing a sophisticated degree of organisation.

The large crowds this year also showed a single purpose of mind, as they helped one another to escape from the terrible effects of the tear gas.

At the end of the day, more than a thousand people were arrested by the police for illegal assembly, including the Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, and many other prominent citizens of Malaysia.

This was a display of the rule of the nation by the naked fist of the police, in its most unadulterated form.

A few days before the rally, a few members of Kajang municipal council had gone to a council meeting in their yellow T-shirts. They were all arrested, perhaps for illegal assembly, or some other mysterious reason. Among these councillors was my neighbour, Eddie Ng of the DAP, whom I meet almost daily near the place where I live.

Eddie was not arrested yesterday, though he was one of the Marshalls at the Bersih rally. He was there with Dr Chen Man Hin, Lim Kit Siang and many other DAP stalwarts. I am glad that the DAP strongmen were taking an active leading role in the Bersih rally.

Ibrahim Ali and his Perkasa Group was nowhere to be seen. Khairy Jamaluddin was present with his group of about 500 UMNO members, but they did not make an impact on the gathering.

What did make an immense impact was the sea of humanity who had gathered to demand transparency and a cleaner system of voting for Malaysians.

Clarity of purpose

This Bersih rally was not only unprecedented in terms of its size, but also in its clarity of purpose, in its demands for a more rational electoral process in this country.

The question here is: will this create any impact on the next general election?

I have no idea about what future will bring. But I am convinced that though people says politics is dirty, political involvement by ordinary citizens is absolutely necessary in nudging history towards the way of justice and fairness for all.

As I write, I recall the suffering of the nation during the dark days of Operation Lalang in 1987. I remember the tales of torture related by my former colleagues, if their mistreatment at the hands of the Special Branch. We had to suffer in silence in those days, before the age of the Internet had arrived.

But there has been some progress of sorts, for the arrival of the Internet has transformed communications and the transmission of news, beyond all recognition.

It is only right - and the time is now ripe - for us to continue to press on. We are making progress, on our slow but ultimately certain march, towards a more enlightened democracy.