Bersih 4: Who is the biggest loser?

The critics say Bersih (more correctly Bersih 2.0) lost credibility because Bersih 4 was “short on Malays”.

Critics say Bersih lost credibility because politicians – opposition politicians at that – dominated speech-making during Bersih 4.

Who are the critics?

It will not do to ask whether the critics were on the ground. To suggest their opinions don’t count because their information was gained from second-hand sources is as silly as suggesting those who’ve not been to Gaza can’t protest against those who oppress Palestinians in Gaza.

What I realised from being on the ground is that you only get a picture of things immediately around you: if you start in Chinatown you’ll think everyone in the rally is from the Chinese community.

What I realised from being on the ground is that you can hardly move during the rally. People are so pressed together that it takes enormous effort to move from one end of a street to another, and sometimes you approach a dead-end and have to change course.

What I realised from being on the ground and occasionally being near enough a stage to hear what was being said, is that Chinese politicians deliver their messages in near-flawless Malay to Chinese crowds! (I choose not to say Bahasa Malaysia.)

“Occasionally being near enough” is important. Most protesters wouldn’t have heard the speakers because even state-of-the-art portable outdoor sound systems have limited reach, the crowds are very noisy and people blow vuvuzela horns.

(May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits of those who sell vuvuzela!)

Soon there will be analyses of aerial photos and good estimates of how many were on the streets during the rally. It’s important to note that not all of them were rally protesters and that not all protesters wore yellow shirts.

The analyses will give a good estimate of the total number of people who turned up.

The analyses will not give a good estimate of their ethnic composition. Only post-rally surveys – which will most likely be conducted by the Merdeka Center for opinion research – will give us a halfway-decent measure of the ethnic composition.

I wrote “half-way decent” because from August 15-21, the Merdeka Center surveyed support for Bersih 4 and, on August 28, reported that only 23% of ethnic Malay voters supported the rally.

Pollsters hate to be wrong; I hope Merdeka Center will recognise that any meaningful difference between their “prediction” and the actual outcome may be attributed to the government’s response to Bersih 4 in the week after their first poll.

(I also hope their future polls will be conducted over shorter periods. A week is a long time in politics.)

Regarding ethnic composition, there are other factors to consider.

First, unlike in the past, Malaysia’s purportedly Islamic party, PAS, did not support Bersih 4.

Therefore, members of the Malay community from the East Coast states – which are dominated by PAS-aligned politicians and civil servants – were absent.

I wrote “purportedly Islamic” because I believe a truly Islamic party would have joined others in expressing outrage over calling corruption “donation” and over allowing the accused to control the investigations of accusations against himself.

In my opinion, next to the Barisan Nasional government, PAS is the second biggest loser in Bersih 4.

Secondly, many members of the Malay community are civil servants – who were issued with notices prohibiting them from attending Bersih 4 and who are required to attend the government-sponsored Merdeka Day celebrations the day after Bersih 4. In my opinion, the civil service are the third biggest losers in Bersih 4.

Corporations who forbade their employees from attending Bersih 4 are the third biggest losers; the third place is shared with corporations who collaborated with the government to disrupt Bersih’s communications.

Now, a few thoughts about critics who say opposition politicians hijacked Bersih 4.

In my opinion, such remarks are made by critics who are either critical of civil society activists in general, or are new to civil-society activism.

Such critics have no idea how few civil society activists are able and willing to get onto a stage – let alone being capable of rousing a crowd of noisy, pressing thousands.

Such critics ignore the fact that members of the ruling coalition issued warnings that their members who participated in Bersih 4 would be subject to disciplinary action!

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, an Umno member who showed up “to show support” for Bersih 4, may be referred to Umno’s discipline committee.

The biggest loser is the Barisan Nasional government. The people’s vote of no-confidence in the prime minister is loud and clear. Will MPs vote out the prime minister? If they don’t they will be the biggest losers of Bersih 4. – August 31, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.