If you were to have paid any kind of attention at all to the news recently, you must have seen or heard about it - The rally for a clean and transparent election that happened in Malaysia, otherwise known as campaign ‘Bersih’. Like many of the young adults who have been away from Malaysia since birth, I had been ignorant of the political scenes in Malaysia. Sure, we all knew a little about the ugly stories or have even been put into situations that required us to do ungraceful acts at times when we return for holidays, but because we are always so far away from home, we thought whatever happened there could not harm us. Like they all say, ignorance is bliss.



I was walking down the roads in the perth CBD on a fateful july 9th when my 2 singaporean friends and I were startled by a commotion down the road. From afar, we saw a huge crowd of people gathering in front of a white brick building across the street. Most of the people had on yellow shirts and were all shouting some stuff that I couldn’t quite make out from where I was. Initially, I had thought it must be a workers’ strike. We were all quite excited. We have never seen anything of the like before. Then, one of my friends said: “hey, isn’t that a Malaysian flag?” I just grinned. She must have a made a mistake, I thought, why would Malaysians be protesting in perth? The first thing that proved me wrong was when I caught sight of the word “Bersih” that was written on many of the boards that many of the protesters were carrying as I approached the crowd. Then my gaze shifted to the building, and saw…the emblem of the Malaysian government on the building. Then I saw… the Malaysian flags. Then I heard the chants… “hidup rakyat”.


An elderly woman in yellow shirt from across the street smiled at us. Many other people who were not participating in the rally were all over the place, taking pictures. We quickly snapped one too and walked away. The scene was not what I have had in mind of a protest, we have been naively brought up to stereotype rallies as dangerous events where protesters frequently get injured or killed, that the one we were looking at kind of looked funny.



But as I walked away from the scene, I was glad that there wasn’t any attempt to be violent. I would have been too embarrassed to call myself a Malaysian had that happened. We are decent, civilized people. Whatever stories you’ve heard of our government may have been true, but we are decent, civilized people.





Sadly, back in Malaysia, this was not the case. The government found it necessary to attack the people with tear gas, water cannons, etc.
Below is a recount of the rally that occurred in kuala lumpur, from the viewpoint of a non-participator. it's a good read. :)

"Someone Did Win on July 9th"


Sheeling