2007 Bersih rally
Encyclopedia
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Malaysia, on November 10, 2007. The aim of this walk was to campaign for electoral reform. It was precipitated by allegations of corruption and discrepancies in the Malaysian election system that heavily favor the ruling political party, Barisan Nasional
Barisan Nasional
Barisan Nasional is a major political coalition in Malaysia, formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance . Along with its predecessor, it has been Malaysia's federal ruling political force since independence...
, which has been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence in 1957.
Much of the publicity for the rally was distributed through online media and blogs. Initially, the organisers planned to have a gathering point at Dataran Merdeka
Dataran Merdeka
Merdeka Square is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is situated in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It was here the Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan flag hoisted for the first time at midnight on August 31, 1957...
square. However, it was later revealed that this was a red herring to distract the police. The locations of the four gathering points were only released the day before the protests by word of mouth, mobile phones and emails.
Consequently, the rally began with gatherings of people at four locations: Sogo department store, Masjid India, Masjid Negara and Pasar Seni. These four groups of people combined into a single group on their march towards the palace gates to hand over a memorandum to the King demanding electoral reform. Early estimates put the number of attendees between 10,000 to 40,000. Plans called for 100,000 people to join in the rally, and there are claims that this number was indeed achieved, as the many early estimates failed to include those who simultaneously gathered at different locations and those that were barred by police from continuing the walk.
The title of the rally is derived from the name of the organizers, BERSIH
Bersih
The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections or Bersih is a coalition of non-governmental organisations with the aim of revising the current electoral system to ensure fair elections in Malaysia.-2007 Bersih rally:...
(Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections). The word "" means clean in Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
.
Bersih demands
The demands made by BersihBersih
The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections or Bersih is a coalition of non-governmental organisations with the aim of revising the current electoral system to ensure fair elections in Malaysia.-2007 Bersih rally:...
were:
- Usage of Indelible Ink (which has already been agreed to by the Electoral Commission, but later scrapped)
- Clean-up of Registered Voters Roll
- Abolition of Postal Votes, and
- Access to the government-controlled print and broadcast media for opposition partiesOpposition (Malaysia)The Opposition in Malaysia is a term used to describe political parties represented in the Parliament of Malaysia that are not in government either on their own or as part of a governing coalition. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in parliamentary systems, i.e...
.
These demands were incorporated into the Memorandum for submission to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
Yang di-Pertuan Agong
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is the head of state of Malaysia. The office was established in 1957 when the Federation of Malaya gained independence....
.
Organiser's preparations
Initially, organisers decided on 2 locations for rally participants to gather before marching on to the Istana Negara: Masjid Negara and Dataran Merdeka, two of the most significant landmarks in Kuala Lumpur. However, the day before the rallies were due, the organisers decided to change the locations to Sogo department store, Masjid India, Masjid Negara and Pasar Seni, in an attempt to divert riot police's attention. Furthermore, a decoy of 500 people were sent to Dataran Merdeka to 'attempt' to get into the square.Government preparations
Local television channels, controlled by the ruling party, continually showed video footage of violent protests from other countries, complemented by the tagline "Demonstration always ends in violence." The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Badawi, was quoted saying "Saya pantang dicabar" (translation: I will not be challenged). He urged Malaysians to use elections to give their feedback. He had vowed to crack down on the rally and gave his permission to the police to break up the rally and possibly arrest its participants.
Police's response
Klang Valley
Klang Valley is an area in Malaysia comprising Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, and adjoining cities and towns in the state of Selangor. An alternative reference to this would be Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan Area or Greater Kuala Lumpur. It is geographically delineated by Titiwangsa Mountains to the...
area. Although it was claimed by the government that the actual rally was the cause of the jam, other sources contradicted this, stating that the numerous barricades and roadblocks set up by police officers were the direct source of the congestion.
Authorities also made changes to the train schedule in an attempt to make it more difficult for people to reach the rally area. Trains on the Kelana Jaya LRT
Kelana Jaya Line
The Kelana Jaya Line is a medium-capacity rail transport system and one of the three rail transit lines in the Kuala Lumpur Rail Transit System operated by RapidKL Rail network...
line coming into the city from Kelana Jaya
Kelana Jaya
Kelana Jaya is a suburb of Petaling Jaya city, in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Kelana Centre Point is a popular shopping mall in this township...
, which normally stop at Pasar Seni
Pasar Seni LRT station
The Pasar Seni LRT station is an LRT station in Kuala Lumpur that is served by rapid KL's Kelana Jaya Line. The station was named after the neighbouring Central Market.The Kuala Lumpur Railway Station which the KTM Komuter serves, is a 400 m walk away...
and Masjid Jamek
Masjid Jamek LRT station
Masjid Jamek LRT station is a rapid transit station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the interchange station between two of RapidKL's light rail transit lines, namely the Ampang Line and the Kelana Jaya Line...
, instead bypassed those stations, going from KL Sentral
Kuala Lumpur Sentral
Kuala Lumpur Sentral or Sentral Kuala Lumpur is a transit-oriented development that houses the main railway station of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Opened on 16 April 2001, despite its name it is actually even less central than the old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, a colonial-era...
directly to Dang Wangi Station
Dang Wangi LRT station
Dang Wangi LRT station is an underground rapid transit station, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, part of the Kelana Jaya Line . The station was opened on June 1, 1999, as part of the line's second and latest extension, which includes the addition of 12 stations , and an underground line that the Dang...
. Passengers were not given any warning of this and many did not realize they would not be able to stop at these stations until the train was already on its way to Dang Wangi or Sentral.
During the rally, the police responded by firing chemical laced water cannons and tear gas at rally participants at the Masjid Jamek and Bandaraya LRT meeting points. 245 people were arrested according to the local daily newspapers The Star, owned by MCA, one of the coalition parties of the current ruling government. Independent sources, however, quoted only 34 people were arrested and released the night later.
Purportedly, the organisers of BERSIH had ordered participants to be cooperative and the assembly was to remain peaceful at all times.
Media's response
Foreign media such as Al-Jazeera covered the event with detailed videos and ground and satellite images. BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
featured the news in their online papers as well. Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
The Bangkok Post is a broadsheet, English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. The first issue was sold on August 1, 1946. It had four pages and cost 1 baht, a considerable amount at the time....
published this event on its internet edition and fine print.
The event received almost no coverage in the local media. The most widely-circulated English daily, The Star
The Star (Malaysia)
The Star is an English-language, tabloid-format newspaper in Malaysia. It is the largest in terms of circulation in Malaysia, according to the . It has a daily circulation of between 290,000 to 300,000...
only reported a traffic congestion. Other print dailies did not report the incident.
Prime Minister
Prime MinisterPrime Minister of Malaysia
The Prime Minister of Malaysia is the indirectly elected head of government of Malaysia. He is officially appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the head of state, who in HM's judgment is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of that House of Representatives , the...
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation , the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition...
remarked that the Malaysian Royalty should not be dragged into Malaysian politics. He further alleged that the rally constituted an attempt by the Opposition to drag the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
Yang di-Pertuan Agong
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is the head of state of Malaysia. The office was established in 1957 when the Federation of Malaya gained independence....
into the issue. Constitutionally, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
Yang di-Pertuan Agong
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is the head of state of Malaysia. The office was established in 1957 when the Federation of Malaya gained independence....
is the Head of the State while the Prime Minister is the Head of Government. Earlier, BERSIH had informed the public that the rally is a non-partisan activity, agreed by all organisers with NGOs (non-governmental organisations) forming the principal backbone of the movement, followed by some opposition parties.
BERSIH had earlier insisted the rally was non-partisan; however, no parties from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition participated. In fact, there was a cry for a clampdown on the rally by delegates and hard-liners in the 2007 UMNO Annual General Meeting.
Information Minister
Later, Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin criticized Al-Jazeera, denying reports that the police used excessive force in the demonstration. Zainuddin said that the police had to disperse the gathering with water cannons and tear gas since the rally was illegal. There are online allegations that certain journalists and civilians were beaten by authorities.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtQxwS0CfGs Mainstream media confirmed arrests of people who had joined the rally. Most Malaysian media outlets generally gave the number of protesters present as approximately 4,000, although independent and international media reported a turnout ten times higher. Zainuddin Maidin was severely criticized in various socio-political blogs for his poor command of English shown during an interview with the Qatar based news group Al-Jazeera regarding the rally.Later the people marched towards Istana Negara to hand over the memorandum after many attempts (from the police) to disperse the mob failed. Some had travelled from other states to claim their rights.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department
Nazri Aziz, from the ruling party UMNO gave a negative response. He claimed there is democracy in Malaysia, therefore there is no necessity for a rally. .Nazri further predicted that the opposition parties "are going to lose, and they are going to lose badly in the next elections". He also insisted that Malaysia was a democracy, thus invalidating comparisons with Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
because the Buddhist monks in Myanmar were protesting for the restoration of democracy in a country where the people were oppressed.
However, Nazri did not admit that protest is allowed in democracies. BERSIH demands, with support from citizens for the restoration of genuine democracy. Unclean elections due to unfair electoral processes is equivalent to false or absent democracy.
Moreover, both Myanmar and Malaysia crack down on rallies and protests not permitted by the government. Human Rights associations across the world regard freedom to assemble and rally as fundamental rights of a citizen in democratic nations.
Royals' response
According to MalaysiakiniMalaysiakini
Malaysiakini is a political news website published in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Since its launch on November 20, 1999, it has been widely considered to be one of the leading non-government owned paid-news agencies in Malaysia. Compete.com estimates that Malaysiakini now attracts over...
, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abdidin in a rare press statement said neither he nor Istana Negara had directly or indirectly supported the massive rally held over the weekend in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
.
According to Bernama
BERNAMA
BERNAMA is a news agency of the government of Malaysia. It is an autonomous body placed under the Information, Culture and Communications Ministry. It was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1967 and started work on 26 May 1968....
, the King
Yang di-Pertuan Agong
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is the head of state of Malaysia. The office was established in 1957 when the Federation of Malaya gained independence....
, in a statement issued via a palace official, expressed regret over the claim that he and the palace had supported Saturday’s illegal gathering.
International response
On 29 November 2007, the AFPAgence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
carried a comment by an anonymous official from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
stating that "We believe citizens of any country should be allowed to peacefully assemble and express their views."
Rally proceedings
The group from Masjid Jamek were sprayed with water canons and tear gas canisters, but still managed to continue their march by joining the group congregating in front of the Sogo departmental store.
The group from Pasar Seni, led by Tian Chua attempted to pass through police barricades that blocked them from approaching the palace. This group also tried to negotiate with the police. As the negotiations were going on, this group found an alley that was not guarded by riot police, hence being able to bypass the police to get to the palace.
500 people from the Pasar Seni group joined part of the Sogo group to continue their march. Meanwhile, 10,000 people from Masjid Negara had begun marching to Istana Negara. They split into two groups to increase the chance of reaching Istana Negara.
A combined group of 40,000 people, stretching half a kilometer long along the highway were stopped by police 300 meters from the palace grounds. They were eventually joined by the group from Masjid Jamek and Sogo.
Police allowed a delegation of 7 people, including PAS's President Abdul Hadi Awang
Abdul Hadi Awang
Dato' Seri Haji Abdul Hadi bin Awang is the current President of the Parti Islam SeMalaysia, an Islamist political party in Malaysia...
and Nasharuddin Mat Isa, DAP
Democratic Action Party
The Democratic Action Party, or DAP is a secular, multi-racial, social democratic Malaysian political party.The DAP is one of the three major opposition parties in Malaysia, along with the PKR and PAS, that are seen as electable alternatives to the Barisan Nasional coalition of parties...
’s Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng
Lim Guan Eng
Lim Guan Eng is the 4th Chief Minister of the State of Penang and Secretary-General of the Malaysian Democratic Action Party . He is the son of Lim Kit Siang, Leader of the Opposition in the Dewan Rakyat from 1973 to 1999 and 2004 to 2008....
and Keadilan's Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar bin Ibrahim is a Malaysian politician who served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, Anwar was a close ally of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's government.In 1999, he was sentenced...
to enter the palace.
After the memorandum was handed over to a palace secretary, most of the rally participants were seen walking back to Masjid Negara. About 20 people had been arrested earlier in the day and were held at Pudu police station. When they finally arrived at Masjid Negara, they were told to go home. Some of the rally participants went to the Pudu police station to support those who were detained.
See also
- 2007 HINDRAF rally2007 HINDRAF rallyThe 2007 HINDRAF rally was a rally held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on November 25, 2007. The rally organizer, the Hindu Rights Action Force, had called the protest over alleged discriminatory policies which favour ethnic Malays...
, a similarly large gathering in Kuala Lumpur occurring two weeks after the Bersih rally. - 2011 Bersih rally
External links
- Official Bersih Website
- Official PAS Website For Bersih Rally
- Map showing movement of rally and contact with police by MalaysiakiniMalaysiakiniMalaysiakini is a political news website published in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Since its launch on November 20, 1999, it has been widely considered to be one of the leading non-government owned paid-news agencies in Malaysia. Compete.com estimates that Malaysiakini now attracts over...
News reports
- SPECIAL REPORT: Bersih’s Nov 10 mass rally on MalaysiakiniMalaysiakiniMalaysiakini is a political news website published in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Since its launch on November 20, 1999, it has been widely considered to be one of the leading non-government owned paid-news agencies in Malaysia. Compete.com estimates that Malaysiakini now attracts over...
- Malaysia police break up protest on BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Photo galleries
- 10 November march to Istana Negara organised by BERSIH on Malaysia TodayMalaysia TodayMalaysia Today is a popular Malaysian news blog. It is known for being critical of both the governing Barisan Nasional coalition and opposition parties such as the Democratic Action Party and Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Its founder and chief editor is Raja Petra Kamarudin, a former political detainee...
- 10 November march to Istana Negara organised by BERSIH on HarakahDaily.net