We keep losing activists - here's why

 

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

- Audre Lorde, writer and civil rights activist

No social movement lasts forever. Think of the biggest movements in your lifetime: Reformasi, Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), Bersih, anti-Lynas, Arab Spring, the sunflower movement in Taiwan, the umbrella movement in Hong Kong, May 18 in South Korea - they end in one of the following ways:

• attained their goal and the movement dissipated;

• achieved partial success but couldn’t sustain the momentum;

• crushed by authorities;

• broken up by internal division;

• transformed into political parties; or

• institutionalised into an organisation.

Time is unforgiving and fair. When I gave a talk to a group of teenagers who are now emancipated voters thanks to the Undi18 movement, I asked for a show of hand who remembered the Bersih rallies.

Out of 40 people, only six raised their hands. I remember feeling, “This is how the older generation feels like when my generation couldn’t remember the reformasi movement. Now it’s happening to us.”

As an organisation, Bersih has been working non-stop to advocate and lobby for reforms for 17 years. As a movement, some people feel that Bersih hasn’t done enough to mobilise the grassroots - but times have changed.

The political landscape is fragmented, and the national mood is best encapsulated in one word: demobilisation. This is the context of the upcoming Bersih congress, which is taking place on May 25.

To remobilise demand for reforms, NGOs are convening to discuss national issues and participate in a collective debate and voting process to formulate a declaration of joint demands.

The public is welcome to register and take part in the congress.

Making activism sustainable

If the external challenge is to remobilise the public and push policymakers to enact change, the internal challenge for civil society is to create an enabling ecosystem for activists so that they can continue agitating for change.

Unfortunately, I have seen several promising activists who experienced “activist burnout” and left civil society to pursue other things.

The #Lawan rally in Dataran Merdeka, held on July 31, 2021

Beyond Bersih, new groups (which came into prominence after the 13th and 14th general elections) also faced a host of issues concerning sustainability. Chief among these were Undi18, Architects of Diversity, YPolitics, CSO Platform for Reform, MISI: Solidariti and so on.

As civil society is never a monolithic group, there are varieties of activism: some groups are more “professionalised” than others, and they have different strengths or focuses - for instance, a loose movement, formal coalition, training provider, social media engagement or a single-issue campaign.

Despite their different methods of activism and political outlook, some of these groups came together to organise the Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (SSR).

They were the most effective organising force during Muhyiddin Yassin’s tenure as prime minister, putting together direct action and campaigns such as “Buka Parlimen” protest, the “Black Flag” campaign, #Lawan protests, convoys and candlelight vigils.

Remember that some of these occurred when Muhyiddin had so much power during the pandemic and emergency, so these brave youth and civil society activists put their lives and livelihoods at risk to mobilise.

Activism is costly

Mobilising came at a cost. Many SSR activists were hauled up. A 19-year-old activist was handcuffed by the police and went after her family home past midnight. Authorities roughed up activists for holding a candlelight vigil. These take a physical and mental toll on activists.

As documented in “DEMO: An Oral History of Protests” project, several participants felt that “activist culture” is dominated by a masculine desire not wanting to show weakness and therefore, not checking each other’s mental health and care after an intense activity.

Police arresting attendees of a candlelight vigil for Covid victims, organised by Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat, on Aug 19, 2021

The lack of aftercare contributes to deteriorating participation.

There was also internal schism where policy or strategic disagreements escalated into character attacks and thus erosion of trust. Because so much of activists’ work relies on solidarity, once trust was broken, the SSR movement disintegrated.

This is not limited to SSR, as several NGOs have been engulfed in major, contentious disputes this year alone.

Some groups departed from civil society for other routes or career paths. There was a collective of youth groups such as Challenger, which merged to form Muda, a political party.

However, our first-past-the-post electoral system is unforgiving to newcomers and Muda has not attained success like Thailand’s youth movement.

Other than political parties, some activists went on to join international organisations or corporations, while some simply disappeared from the activist scene.

When I interviewed Anis Syafiqah Mohd Yusof, the face of the “TangkapM01 rally”, for research on student activism in contemporary Malaysia, she is now a schoolteacher.

Anis Syafiqah Mohd Yusof

Her students could never have guessed that their soft-spoken, humble teacher was once “the eye in the storm” as the spokesperson for the coalition that rallied against Najib Abdul Razak’s role in 1MDB after the Wall Street Journal’s expose.

Another activist I interviewed also shared that not all student activists ended up “cashing in” on their fame for political platforms and even faced difficulties securing employment due to investigations by the police for their activism.

Many activists felt like they had to do what they must at the time, then moved on to their “ordinary” lives and careers.

Initially, when all these young activists rose, I recalled seeing veteran activists Ambiga Sreenevasan and Ivy Josiah tweeting, “We can finally rest.” They were the successors that could have been.

Threats and opportunities

Looking ahead, if the civil society ecosystem is to flourish, we need to equip our activists with the right workplace culture, adequate benefits, and a strong support system to enable us or them to perform our roles effectively and sustainably.

A protest demanding that Parliament be opened, held in April 2021.

I list 10 challenges that could impede our advocacy:

• Need for effective leadership, succession planning and civil society organisation governance. Do we have enough bridge builders, community organisers and apprentices to continue the work?

• Rejuvenation. We need to constantly tap into new groups of people as right-wing groups have proliferated TikTok with extremist content, but progressive civil society groups have not been able to match their reach. It’s not enough to bring them to the fold, but to provide early and mid-career activists the opportunity to lead – which means the top leadership cannot overstay for others to go up.

• Build ties and identify key allies among political actors who have the influence to push for reform. We can’t only rely on yesterday’s politicians.

• Precarious financial health. Without core and regular funding, NGOs rely on seasonal project funding which is best described by paraphrasing the Malay proverb, Kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang (income that is just sufficient for eating). Foreign funding is also increasingly dicey and we must begin to ramp up and diversify local sources of funding.

• Talent recruitment and retention. It is no secret that NGOs face high turnover due to limited career mobility and less-than-ideal wages. Young activists have more career options (thus competition) these days, so we ought to consider increasing monetary and non-monetary benefits to remain an attractive workplace/sector. We can’t underpay and overwork activists because “it’s for a cause.”

• Stronger support system. Bolstering legal support by the Bar Council and Lawyers for Liberty, Freedom Fund as a revolving fund to defend activists by Engage, strategic litigation by the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights. Perhaps, we can explore collaboration with mental health service providers.

• Imbalance of resources compared to anti-democratic actors. How do we confront far-right activists and state apparatus with 10 times our resources? How do we support our people when they are doxed by far-right activists or harassed by state authorities?

• Balancing between the needs of a movement and organisation, between a career and a cause, between developing a sustainable business model and mobilising for all kinds of causes, between building communities and protecting turf (territoriality).

• Develop principles and frameworks to work together. Can we work together on one common issue while upholding the right to disagree on other issues? If we insist on only working with people who share the same views, our reach and influence will be limited.

• Consistency in advocacy. If we express solidarity for Ukraine, we must do the same for Palestine. If we champion human rights here, we cannot condone what happens to the Uighurs. Selective solidarity erodes our credibility.

Now is not the time for cynicism. This period in our history is very important as the democratic transition since GE14 has not been fully settled and may even be reversed.

This could be a false dawn, akin to the Weimar Republic before Adolf Hitler’s rule, where a dysfunctional democracy is seen as political instability and paves the way for a return to authoritarian strongman rule.

It’s either Malaysia heads down that path, or this period ushers in a new era of multiparty democracy which implements institutional and electoral reform and consolidates democratic norms so deeply that no other party in future dares to violate them or put any activists under arrest for civil disobedience, rebuilds independence of our public institutions.

This is the task and duty of civil society activists and any progressive politicians today, as we carry on the torch of reforms. And if there are young activists willing to carry the torch, let’s support them and do the work, together. - Mkini

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OOI KOK HIN is a political sociologist who dabbles in civil society.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.