elizabeth wong

Readings: Malaysia’s Prague Spring? December 8, 2007

Malaysia’s Prague Spring?
Asian Analysis, ASEAN Focus Group 

In the past month, two massive rallies calling for political change were held in Kuala Lumpur. In any democracies, this would be quite normal but in Malaysia, rallies are the purview of the ruling National Front (BN), carefully staged to show support to the government or the ruling UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) party. The police often deny a permit for opposition parties to hold outdoor demonstrations or rallies. These two rallies were different; they were organised by NGOs, albeit with support from opposition parties.

The first rally, on 10 November, was organised by BERSIH (Malay for clean), a coalition of NGOs and opposition parties calling for “clean” elections. Under the existing electoral system, through indirect control of the Electoral Commission, ethnic mobilisation, money politics, manipulation of the electoral roll, gerrymandering, postal votes, double voting, mass media control and others, the BN has won every election since independence. The standing joke in Malaysia is that BN wins the election before the first vote is cast, the only question is the margin of victory. BERSIH wants electoral reform in all the areas mentioned above. To the surprise of many, more than 40,000 BERSIH supporters in yellow t-shirts came out despite public warnings from the Prime Minister and the Police that the rally was illegal and those who take part will be arrested. The police attempted to lock-down downtown KL but failed. In some areas, the police used tear gas and water cannons laced with chemicals to clear the streets. Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Hadi Haji Awang, leaders of the three main opposition parties – National Justice Party (PKR) , Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Islam (PAS) respectively – managed to evade the police and lead thousands to hand over the BERSIH memorandum on electoral reform to a representative of the royal palace.

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