Has the fire gone out of control?

Bersih now seems more like a group of chanting, raving sloganeers who've forgotten about the cause for free and fair elections.

COMMENT

Revolution is an ugly, drunken monster. It stomps in, upends the furniture, and leaves without so much as an apology or thought to the wreckage in its wake. But we all seem to love it. It’s a heady feeling. We love the idea that people in power can be overturned by the masses by force.

We’ll go into the streets and shout. We’ll chant our slogans, call for the prime minister to step down, recite the government’s many injustices, and get tear-gassed and water-cannoned.

And then we’ll go home, talk about what a good time we had standing up for democracy, proudly parade our bruises. And then, in a couple of months, we’ll forget about the whole thing.

I was a second-year university student when Bersih happened, and I remember how amazing it felt. It was a sudden and empowering rush of optimism. Everyone was talking about it in the weeks before and after. Facebook and the Twittersphere was ablaze with posts about #Bersih.

The Internet, for better or for worse, played a huge part. I remember thinking that what we had in Facebook and Twitter was very much like what fire first was to early man. Watch how a child reacts to an open fire, and you’ll get an idea of what we felt back then.

I wonder now though whether we’ve let that fire spiral out of control.

It’s been nine years now since its inception, and Bersih still seems less of a viable movement and more of a group of chanting, raving sloganeers.

I went to the Bersih 4 rally launch at Petaling Jaya, and I was disappointed with what I saw. I felt that the speakers were, for the most part, rather shallow. The scene was little more than a lot of chest pounding and periodic attempts to pump up the crowd with shouts of “Hidup Bersih!” and slogans insulting the Prime Minister.

Bersih has announced that there will be lectures and workshops for the public interested in learning about the law and their rights, but the focus on that seems disappointingly low.

Where is all the talk of free and fair elections we used to have? Now it’s all talk about how our Prime Minister needs to go and how everything is his fault.

It has never been more fashionable to criticize the government than it is now. Yes, the pressing issues surrounding those now in power need to be addressed, and we do need new leaders who will not spend our taxes willy-nilly. But why does it feel like the cause has been hijacked by politics? Why does the cause feel so tainted now, like it has devolved into sheer name-calling and idiocy?

I still support the cause Bersih has stood for all these years, and I will, with everyone else, call for the people to come out and speak out for change. But let’s be absolutely clear about what kind of change we want, and how we’re going to get it. We need to know ways we can contribute to electoral reform and political honesty and transparency. We need to go beyond coming out once a year to shout in the streets.

And as we go out this weekend, let’s make sure we know exactly why we’re there. We’re not just going to be there to tumbangkan Najib. We’re going to speak out peacefully for reform and change.