Annie Ooi, better known as Aunty Bersih, says she is grateful for all the legal help and kind assistance of NGOs when she had been detained at public rallies previously. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, August 23, 2015.Annie Ooi, better known as Aunty Bersih, who emerged as an icon after taking part in the electoral reform group’s 2011 rally, will not be taking any mats or a sleeping bag to the overnight Bersih rally next weekend.
The only item she plans to carry are yellow lemons.
She wants to keep her hands free, to punch her fists in the air and to pick up trash from the streets.
She also does not want to worry about her belongings when she is bundled up into a police van yet again.
"When I'm tired, I will just get a cardboard box and catch a nap, I learnt this from the homeless, sleep is important, and you need to be able to do it anywhere," the 69-year-old told The Malaysian Insider when met at her small, sparsely furnished flat which did not even have a television set.
Now an old hand at participating in rallies, the retired school teacher recalls feeling uncomfortable with all the media attention she got back in 2011, but today, she knows quite a number of reporters by name, although she is still uneasy about being under the spotlight.
Ooi has experienced it all – from being pushed into a police van, getting tear-gassed, detained in the police lock-up and denied her basic rights, to facing court charges for participating in rallies.
But the grandmother, who looks every bit her age, has no plans to stop protesting, saying that although her energy was limited, “her spirit was willing”.
Her reasons for wanting to participate remain the same as before – Ooi is fed up with the inequality and unfairness she has experienced in life, mostly during her 35 years as a teacher.
The former English and Art teacher recalled how many of her students would score As in all subjects including mathematics and chemistry, but would get a poor credit, C6, for the Bahasa Malaysia paper in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (BM) examination.
This, she added, also happened to her own children, now in their 40s.
"Mind you all the subjects in which my students scored As were in the Malay language, so we knew our students were being targeted (with the BM paper) but we could not do a thing.
"I was heartbroken to see them sad as they were not able to continue to Form Six with a C6 in BM.
"So by joining these rallies, I'm protesting against injustice and inequality. I want equality for all races. I don't want to be a second class citizen. My father died a second class citizen, Karpal Singh died a second class citizen.
"I want to change that for the future generation," she said, referring to former DAP chairman and lawyer Karpal Singh who died in a car accident last year.
But Ooi knows it’s no easy task to change the way the system works or the way people think, saying even urbanites were turning a blind eye to the injustices in society.
"I was in a taxi recently with my hand-made plastic Bersih flowers and was trying to talk to the driver about it, but he got so upset and told me that I was being nonsensical and told me to go back to China or India if I was unhappy here.
"So clearly, these people don't realise what's going on or they are not subject to the injustices that others in this country face," she said.
Ooi, however, was less willing to speak about her family, and would only let out that her children did not approve of her joining street protests, as they were concerned about where they would get money to bail her out if she ended up in jail.
She admitted that when she went to her first Bersih rally, she did not think she would run afoul of the law.
"I didn't know many things, about how the court worked or even what was the meaning of mention of a case. I only knew how to walk the streets," she said, laughing heartily.
Pro-bono lawyers
Now Ooi counts herself as something of a "pro" on the "hazards" of street rallies – she has been held in the police lock-up three times and is facing two separate charges in court for participating in the Black 505 and anti-GST rallies previously.
She is thankful for the support of pro-bono lawyers and activists who come to the aid of rally goers like her when they get into trouble with the authorities, and admitted that the thought of burdening her children if she got caught did worry her.
After looking thoughtful for a few seconds, however, the devout Catholic brushed the concern aside, saying instead she trusted in God.
In preparation for the rally, Ooi, who travels mostly by bus as she does not own a car, is going around telling businesses around the city to allow rally participants to use their restrooms and to lower food prices.
In the course of her day, Ooi also encourages people she meets to attend the rally, but said that only one or two from her apartment block would be going.
"A prophet is never accepted in his own country," she said, referring to a line from the New Testament of the Holy Bible.
She does not think she can stay throughout the 34-hour rally planned for August 29 and 30, saying her plan was to take breaks in between.
And the retired teacher, who is still getting used to using a handphone and the WhatsApp messaging system, hopes she does not get drawn into too many "selfies".
She also plans to go the rally by herself again as her aim was to connect with those who were unsure and afraid of the authorities.
"I just want to walk between the crowds and search for the weak and confused, and to ask them 'are you ok'?
"We must use kindness to break up the chronic society Umno has built," she said.
She is also prepared for the consequences, including being caught, but said: "I have been and will continue to be bullied in this country because I'm a woman, a Chinese and old, if things don't change".
Bersih 2.0, the organiser of Bersih 4, is demanding reforms in the election system, governance, parliamentary democracy and the economy, and freedom to protest.
- TMI
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