I think I mentioned it one of my earlier blogs... Hang on....Ah here we are... Newspapers from that period in 2011.
The agenda was very different then, however. And the key message was one of reform and there were no overt calls for the government to resign. The scale was also a lot smaller. There was also a sense of equality - there had been a counter-rally planned, a protest against Bersih - and the police had said that both sides were not to stage the rally. In the end, both yellow and red-shirted activists were arrested, with UMNO members among the number. (1400 in all if I recall)
Fast forward to 2015 and Bersih 4.0 was a totally different matter. For one thing, it was much bigger and the call was much more strident - PM Najib's resignation involving a scandal of RM2.6 billionn in his account. Surprisingly though, there were no serious clashes this time round even though the authorities had declared the gathering illegal. Interesting, for in Bersih 3.0, teargas ended up being used. Perhaps, given the numbers involved and the sentiment in the air, it was thought taking the participants to task would not only prove an exercise in futility but also show that the authorities had ostensibly failed to exert control.
In the end, Bersih 4.0 was not only well-attended, it was well-organised...
There was provision made for free food, drink and toilets...
Advice as to what to do if one was arrested...
At the end of the rally, much was made of the fact that not that many Malays attended the rally. Some pointed to the fact that PAS was no longer around to galvanize Malay support. Perhaps the answer was subtler in that many Malays, having a lower salary, still needed to work and/or could not spend too much time at the event. For one, our Malay taxi driver who drove us back to the hotel said that he was in full support of Bersih but that he could only afford to go for a short while the day before. He had "bread and butter issues to take care of, see?" Like fetching curious passengers like us to and from the rally. This Malay opportunist managed to mix work and... rallying?
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A comment made after the rally made me think.
Actually, for that weekend, Rabbit and I were supposed to go to KL with one of her colleagues, a pleasant lady called Lynette. But Lynette pulled out at the last minute, saying that she was worried about the rally.
On the way back, Rabbit opined that Lynette had every right to her opinion that the rally could be dangerous, reminding me that not everybody was adventurous as us.
But that was the point, I thought. Was attending something a peaceful rally such as Bersih inherently dangerous? For one, we did not take sides, we did not dress and yellow and we watched politely from the sidelines.
More importantly, was it important for us to even attend it? 50-50 thought Rabbit. Certainly, thought I. I thought it was fascinating to see how national issues could impel ordinary people to more or less spontaneously, with little heavy planning, gather to make their voices heard. And I wondered whether this could happen in Singapore. Or have we become to used to used to our cocooned lifestyle to stand up for what we believed in? Certainly our Singaporean founding fatahers were able to do that. But in this day and age with the stability that we have fought so hard to achieved, is this even the right way to stand up? Is demanding the resignation of a democratically elected government through a show of dissatisfaction in the streets? So many questions, no straightforward answers.
But one thing I was sure of. We did the right thing attending. As has been said so many times, Singapore is but a small red dot in a vast world, We cannot live in complacent isolation, unaware and disinterested in what goes on in the rest of the world, particularly our neighbours. We have heard the clarion call from the government for Singaporeans to broaden our horizons, to make our mark internationally, to venture overseas and take commercial risks. How then do we do that if we are afraid to even watch, as bystanders, an event which thousands of similar Malaysian white collar workers, lawyers, accountants, executives felt safe, or if not, passionate enough to collectively ask for a better future for themselves and their children?
Without passing any judgment, I think Bersih highlights some interesting differences between Singapore and Malaysia. Indeed, the last time thousands thronged the streets was to bid farewell to the much-loved founding father and first Prime Minister of independent Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. Bersih 4.0 was about trying to say goodbye to the, rightly or wrongly, much vilified Prime Minister, Najib Razak. The parallels certainly raise a contrast as to the levels of trust the citizenry has for the government in the respective countries.
On the other hand, one cannot help but wonder if common-folk in Singapore would be brave enough to take such action. One wonders if it would be tolerated. A slew of defamation suits against people who have spoken up, wrongly it has to be said, against the government gives an indication as to what level of dissent would be tolerated in the island state.
As I mentioned, there are no clear-cut answers but I sincerely feel that these are issues that one cannot run away from.
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