By William de Cruz
I HAVE always seen Global Bersih’s beginnings in an email discussion group set up by David Teoh, a Malaysian architecture graduate working in Melbourne. It happened during the later part of this millennium’s first decade. It was not long after Malaysia’s 12th general election in 2008, when voters broke the two-thirds parliamentary majority that Umno and its government coalition had wielded, first as the Alliance and later as the National Front, since independence in 1957.
The time of conception was, and still is, significant, because GE12 gave Malaysians living overseas the hope, spirit and wherewithal to believe in change, stand for a tangible cause, bring real action to bear on a floundering need to help family and friend at home.
I remember sitting at my PC in Sydney, late evening on March 8, 2008, reading about the outcome of GE12, feeling the wonder and astonishment of the result, and the disappointment in knowing I had done nothing to contribute to such a momentous achievement by the suppressed and cheated citizens of my home country. I knew how they felt, I had suffered racial and religious discrimination early in schooling and it had not ended by the time I migrated in 1990.
Nevertheless, the message beamed globally from the election result motivated overseas Malaysians — soon to be known in the alternative online press as ‘the Malaysian diaspora’ — like nothing else. If Malaysians at home could break the parliamentary control that had allowed Umno and its National Front coalition to rewrite the Malaysian Constitution at will, then those of us who lived in less suppressed societies and countries could step up to the plate, to help, make a contribution.
If the GE12 outcome was the catalyst for our coming together, the Bersih rally that followed was all the spark that was needed for us to really move into action. Malaysians overseas saw, on BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and elsewhere, the vicious assault by police and riot squads on those who attended the peaceful protests, and many of us felt we couldn’t just stand by. And so we came to be, “born of a spontaneous outpouring of worldwide support” for the rallies and the peaceful, law-abiding calls for reform, as the founding members of Global Bersih (GB) would soon state in its statutes about five years later.
Common cause among strangers
Back in the early stages of our connection, David and I had not yet met face-to-face. We used email and phone, each of us adding brothers and sisters in arms to the digital discussion. The young Malaysian architect then brought us all together in one mailing list, which included people from New Zealand, Singapore, the US and England, to start with. Most of the group had only made digital connections with others, just like David and I. We were strangers, but for that shared concern for what was happening under the Umno-led government of Malaysia, a willingness to try and curtail its worst excesses by making as many people, journalists and politicians aware of that government’s dangerous and destructive ways.
I suggested we speak as one, become an overseas ‘voice’ on behalf of Malaysians at home. By this time, and on my own steam, I had already begun writing commentaries on Bersih’s strident calls for reform and the wider politics of Malaysia, for publication in Malaysiakini, whose editor Steven Gan carried my pieces every time I sent one in by email.
My professional background was journalism, I knew the power of the press, and its online ability to reach hundreds of thousands and more, how audiences would exponentially increase every time a story was shared on Facebook, the main social media platform of that time.
The group chose to give it a go. The work of building that voice on its behalf was passed on to me — the sentiment was, ‘You’re the journalist… you’re already writing.’ I was not unhappy with the responsibility. The idea that a Sydney-based activist and writer should further the connection with online news sites back home also offered a practical advantage: among the cities represented in our fledgling group, Sydney-time was the closest to the KL clock, which meant we could speak out within the 24-hour news cycle of developments back home.
The next step was choosing between making our voice heard as quickly as possible after matters arising in Malaysia, on one hand, and time-consuming consultation with people from several timezones, on the other. There was just no question about it — David and I began phone discussions to pin down the theme of every piece. I would draft an article and email it to David, make corrections and changes until we were both happy with the final version. The final piece was usually sent off first thing in the Sydney morning, so Kini would have it in time for mapping out the day’s headlines.
The pieces were all emailed from my PC to Steven, who, bless his soul, continued to publish my submissions. They all carried my byline, and every article was copied to the mailing list.
From the start, I was moved by the conviction that we had something of value to add to the clamour back home: the fact that we no longer lived in Malaysia gave us a perspective that was free of the stifling and oppressive political atmosphere there. Living overseas in environments of open government, amid societies that were not afraid to make demands of the state, emboldened us to express what might freely and reasonably be expected of so-called democratically elected representatives of the people, the voter, anywhere and not least in Malaysia.
A natural fit for the commentary I pushed was Bersih, which had begun to school Malaysians everywhere in the principles of government accountability, transparency, affirmative action for all, an independent judiciary, one man-one vote, an end to gerrymandering and malapportionment, fair and free elections… the universal values of a practising democracy.
Bersih actually became the key in my mind. Bersih had gifted Malaysians with a new political language. Bersih told us it was not a crime to peacefully demand reform of the government. The feeling grew in me that we were nothing if not an instrument, an arm, of Bersih, the movement headquartered in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
I brought these to bear on my writing — the evocative calls for reform at home, the courage of the man on the street in the face of state intimidation, and the overseas environment that helped us see things differently from those who woke up every day under the yoke of Umno. From the beginning, we were more than surprised by the readers’ comments — Malaysians were touched beyond anything we might have imagined and readily expressed gratitude for what we were doing and saying, for caring.
Rallying cries
Two developments within the Malaysian diaspora provided real traction to Global Bersih, the movement. The first of these was the successful organisation of rallies across the world, held in solidarity with the Bersih 2 rally in Malaysia, which was followed by Bersih 3. Keep in mind that at the time of Bersih 2 back home, there was real unwillingness to take to the streets in the urban Klang Valley, due to the fear of arrest, losing one’s job, if it became known that one had taken part in the public protests. The Malaysian government of Najib Razak played its cards like any other dictatorship: it declared that Bersih’s demand for accountability, transparency and free and fair elections were an attempt to overthrow the government. Thereby, Putrajaya could unleash the full and ugly might of the Internal Security Act, which allowed for indefinite detention without trial. People at home were naturally scared, and with good reason.
By contrast, it was so easy for Malaysians and their supporters living overseas to gather in cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Auckland, London, Washington, Geneva and elsewhere. In Melbourne, as David has recalled it, the solidarity rally for Bersih 2 was held in Federation Square, a state-owned public space that had been farmed out to the private sector for management. “We had to make an application to the management of the premises, which forwarded our application to the police station a short walk from the square,” David told me. “During the rally, a police officer approached me. I thought I was in some kind of trouble. Instead, the officer offered support by volunteering to delay all trams at the time the rally was scheduled to end, so the large number of participants could disperse safely.”
This stark difference in how the state responded to the right to protest was seen, felt and embraced in many other cities. The scene was the same in Sydney, where our application to rally publicly in support of the protests back home was approved without question. Applications by groups to hold public protests were only required so police could ensure that approval was only given to one protest at any one time and venue. Police officers were present at our rally, the public space in Martin Square in Sydney’s CBD. We were elated to be told that they had come to contain if not prevent any trouble, to protect our right to peaceful protest.
In Melbourne, nearly 800 people turned up for the Bersih 2 rally; in Sydney, we numbered about 1,200 on that fateful 9 July 2011 Saturday afternoon. The numbers grew and grew at our overseas rallies as the flame of support and solidarity for Malaysians at home flared and spread.
I collated the reports, photographs and videos of the rallies from our co-ordinators in other cities and countries, via email, combined them into one news story, and sent the full report to Steven. In contrast, Malaysians back home suffered barbed wire, tear gas, water cannons and police brutality because people had the audacity to call for reform in government.
The reports of Malaysians overseas gathering for Bersih 2 peacefully, with police support, instead of harassment and violence, helped to transform the hitherto vague notion of Global Bersih in the minds of our comrades at home. Global Bersih, the movement that had originally comprised a few individuals who added their voice to the spectrum of government critique in Malaysia, was now walking the streets of cities worldwide, calling attention to the injustice, corruption and growing authoritarianism back home.
By the time Bersih 3 was called for in Malaysia, the courage of people at home in the face of police intimidation, harassment and violence, fired the diaspora even more. Because of the time difference, overseas Malaysians saw the reports of police violence towards Bersih before their own rallies, and it made more and more of us to attend. Bersih 3 saw the biggest street protest ever in Malaysia. Conservative reports said KL alone had attracted more than 100,000 Bersih supporters. Overseas, some cities saw more than a thousand gather, smaller than in KL of course, but powerful in the symbolism of support.
We had come a long way as a group of concerned Malaysians living overseas, who shared thoughts and plotted our responses to the injustice back home on email, by phone and via shaky Skype video hook-ups.
I eventually introduced myself to Bersih chair Ambiga Sreenevasan by phone, in KL in 2011, and asked if we could meet. Ambiga agreed. My meeting with Ambiga developed into a lunch gathering with other activists, at a Thai restaurant in the Bangsar Shopping Centre in KL. I spoke on behalf of the group and proposed that we could work to support the aims of Bersih in KL, spreading the word on the fraught situation in Malaysia among international human rights organisations, politicians, activists and news agencies.
Ambiga gave her blessing for the idea of a global arm that would support the Bersih platform, and she nominated me as the one to take the reins. I agreed, said it would be an honour, and assured her that the next item of business, once I returned to Sydney, would be to call for a proper vote to choose the group’s leaders. On a related note, and as a mark of how Bersih was touching the hearts of Malaysians, a stranger who had recognised Ambiga and probably heard some of our conversation paid for our lunch without telling us, and we only found out after we called for our bill.
The first executive
As for choosing a leadership team, it was not easy in those days. The best we could do was group video-chats over Skype, and more often than not it was just audio. If anyone were to put to the group an important issue for discussion, we would often wait at least 24 hours as the clock moved through the various timezones our delegates lived in, before we could determine a majority view. Holding our first election was no exception.
Three days passed — during which we took nominations (proposals) and waited it out for others to support or second a nomination — before the email group chose me as GB’s first president. Individuals in said group then nominated themselves as delegates for the US, the UK and Ireland, Europe, the Middle East, Australasia and New Zealand. David had by this time returned to Malaysia as an architect and thought it best to leave the overseas work to those who lived overseas. However, he agreed to initially remain as a steering committee member who would act as our Asean delegate.
Apart from spreading the word on the real Malaysia across the globe, delegates would also continue to lead and otherwise direct solidarity rallies in their cities and countries of residence, timing them to run on the same day as the public protests back home, just like we had done for Bersih 2 and Bersih 3.
Talk among GB delegates, who also formed the core steering committee, soon centred on some sort of official status. I nominated to our ‘executive team’ Dr Andrew Foong of Sydney as secretary and Praveen Nagappan in Melbourne as treasurer, and both were accepted.
To recognise and pay respect to our roots, our reason for existence, I proposed that Global Bersih ask two people to do us the honour of becoming our patrons: Ambiga Sreenevasan, the former chair of Bersih, and Malaysia’s National Laureate, poet and novelist, Abdul Samad, better known as A. Samad Said. The steering committee agreed unhesitatingly. I reached out to Ambiga personally, and David visited Samad at his home. He actually called me on Skype as he sat with Samad, and it was a very special moment to be in the virtual presence of such a Malaysian elder. Both Ambiga and Samad very graciously agreed to become our patrons.
In consultation with Andrew and Praveen, along with input and feedback from the steering committee, I drafted and finalised our statutes and constitution.
To formalise Global Bersih as an organisation, these documents were lodged in Geneva — by design or destiny, the Swiss city had become the seat of political activism by non-government, not-for-profit organisations. Andrew and I put our signatures to the statutes and constitution and posted them off on 17 December 2013 to Bala Chelliah in Geneva, the Global Bersih delegate for Switzerland. Along with a document that stated our origin, identity and purpose, these were lodged on 7 Jan 2014 with the Swiss government department that existed as a custodian of such documents for organisations like ours.
Global Bersih now had status as an official organisation. On behalf of Malaysia, we would speak and present our appeals to the United Nations, via the UN rapporteurs for human rights, the elimination of racial discrimination and free and fair elections.
I continued to write our press releases and commentaries for online publication, and Kini began to refer to me as “inaugural president of Global Bersih”.
Overseas voters
The second development that sealed Global Bersih’s place in the story of my country’s social activism had to do with the voting rights of Malaysians abroad. Between 2011 and 2013, a group of Malaysians living in the UK sued the Election Commission for their right to cast their votes overseas at official polling stations. In theory and practice, the votes would be cast in sealed ballot boxes. Votes were to be counted under the watchful eye of scrutineers appointed by the government as well as the opposition.
The legal activism succeeded and the EC was directed by the courts to ensure that Malaysians living overseas were given the right to vote at overseas polling stations (high commissions, consular offices, embassies, for example). I reported for Kini at every important stage of the legal proceedings.
Now, I also began trying to improve on our online exposure. Jahabar Sadiq of The Malaysian Insider became a recipient of my contributions on behalf of Global Bersih, as did Joan Lau of Malay Mail Online. I later came to know of an unwritten agreement between Kini and TMI — if a commentary or report was carried by one, the other would not use it. After Global Bersih had been established as a movement, I would on occasion send a piece off to TMI exclusively. MMO, on the other hand, was happy to report on the report, and would carry our contributions with the note ‘as reported by Malaysiakini’ or ‘as stated in a commentary on Malaysiakini’.
Suddenly, political activism was exciting. Milestones were being set. People power was real, alive and well.
The press releases kept flowing. Always in consultation with Global Bersih’s executive, I kept drafting the articles, finalising them ate at night in phone calls with Andrew and Praveen, sending them off to Steven first thing the next morning. At the same time, I kept the steering committee informed of our work every step of the way. My writing style didn’t change, but I felt I was no longer speaking for myself, and this sense of representation brought with it a new confidence, it added a kind of muscle and, of course, responsibility. In turn, readers began to see my name, my byline, as representing Malaysians overseas.
By this time, it had been more than three years since I had left my full-time job as sub-editor with The Australian newspaper. In a strange and not unwelcome twist of fate, my work for Global Bersih demanded more time of me than any other job ever had. Work required my adjusting the Sydney day to various timezones and making myself ‘available’ for chats with delegates late into the night, or early in the morning, depending on where they lived. It was not easy, but satisfaction is a powerful fuel.
The one we should have won
Global Bersih momentum moved up a few gears when GE13 was called.
The steering committee felt the need to reach out to world news organisations, like-minded NGOs and not-for-profit groups and concerned politicians in various countries, to tell them about what was happening in Malaysia — especially the corruption, election-rigging, detention without trial, state violence on peaceful protests.
Eschewing the path of more commentary and opinion, I chose to tell the story with published headlines. I began collating news reports from Kini, TMI and MMO and putting them together in a monthly e-newsletter. Kevin Bathman, a Malaysian in Sydney at the time, did all the backroom work on this e-newsletter. At the height of this strategy, the mailing list hit more than 100 recipients.
With an eye on the coming election, Global Bersih also had to turn its focus to registered voters who lived overseas, the vast majority of whom would be opposition supporters. Unsurprisingly, Malaysian distrust of the government and its instruments did not wane in the face of the legal victory on overseas votes, and the historical court decree.
We chose to launch Jom Balik Undi, the campaign to encourage people to fly home to vote. After all, it was almost a ritual that overseas citizens returned home on holiday every year. We simply suggested politely that they now adjust their plans for that same holiday so it covered the election date.
Malaysians just loved the idea. Hundreds of registered voters overseas chose to fly home to vote, instead of casting their ballots overseas. The Malaysians who were to return spread word of their plans in their respective cities, and invited registered voters to entrust them with their completed ballots, which they would bring home as part of their luggage. They were all volunteers. Back home, another group of volunteers co-ordinated affairs to collect and distribute the voting papers to the respective constituencies once the volunteer couriers arrived.
We tried what we thought should be the obvious route: contacting opposition parties and asking them to be responsible for collecting the couriered ballots and distributing them accordingly. But the Pakatan Harapan mechanism was very slow to respond and their self-imposed bureaucracy sent home the message that we stick to our volunteers.
In all likelihood, the ‘tumpang’ voters and those who flew home to vote counted for less than a few thousand. But the symbolism of Malaysians flying home to vote was a powerful message that said, ‘We may not be home, but we have not left.’ Umno was buying votes. We were paying in cash for our right to vote.
Air AsiaX took to Facebook to say it would prioritise Malaysians flying home to vote in their ticketing systems.
Singapore was in a class all its own. Malaysian activists there arranged for voters who worked or lived on the island to be allocated seats in buses, people-movers and other modes of private transport that waited across the causeway to take them to voting stations on the peninsula. Hundreds if not thousands of voters in Singapore were able to make the round-trip to vote and come back within 24 hours. All this happened while Singapore police made it very difficult for our activists to gather — I understand five was a crowd. Nevertheless, these brave Malaysian delegates stuck to the letter of the law while they pushed the JBU campaign to an astonishing level of success.
Global Bersih also ran a donation drive to fund East Malaysians working on the peninsula to return to their home states to vote. Success was limited in this case, because the travel logistics were mind-boggling. It wasn’t simply about paying for flights. Sabahans and Sarawakians then had to call on friends and family for car or motorbike pick-ups and even boat-rides before they could reach their villages and towns to vote. Many would have to walk the last few miles.
East Malaysians in the peninsula and citizens in Singapore accounted for a huge swathe of voters. It was a deliberate ploy of an Election Commission that worked for Umno and the National Front to make it difficult for them to vote at all.
JBU, the donation drive for East Malaysians, all these developments were reported back home, most often in Kini, though I made sure that all reports were also sent to contacts at MMO and TMI. The global campaign to fly home to vote was too big a story for it to be offered exclusively to Kini.
My article for Malaysiakini, “Why I must come home to vote” for GE13, published 28 October 2012, went viral at a time when I didn’t even understand that word.
The result of the 2008 election was still fresh in the mind of the electorate, the ‘impossible’ had been achieved once. Our JBU campaign dovetailed with Bersih’s own push for voter registration at home. All of it combined to deliver a record voter turnout for GE13. Some informed commentators said that the voter numbers in Malaysia for the thirteenth GE had set an all-time world record.
The street slogan for GE13 was “Ini Kali-lah”.
The night after the result, a few activists were determined not to let the outcome of GE13 drown the jubilation of how far and how close we had come. We all gravitated to the Backyard Pub & Grill in the KL suburb of Sri Hartamas, a very popular don’t-worry-be-happy venue.
It was early in the morning when a friend, a comrade, said his goodbye and was about to drive off. I knocked on the window of his car, reluctant for the night to end. He wound his window down, reached out. We shook hands. I grasped him on the shoulder and said, “Lain kali-lah.” We both laughed at ourselves, sharing the joy of a battle well fought.
I returned to Sydney soon after and my work continued. At every step of the way, the position I found myself in, of being able to help, was never more or less than privilege and responsibility. It was hard work, but immensely rewarding.
Less than two years after GE13, I resigned as president of Global Bersih.
William de Cruz — Sydney, 5 December 2021
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With Lim Kit Siang in Sydney after the GE14 win by Pakatan Harapan: From left are
Syahredzan Johan, Global Bersih founding secretary Andrew Foong, LKS and I |
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With Global Bersih founding treasurer
Praveen Nagappan, Sydney 2019 |
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| Signature page of the Global Bersih statutes |
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| Global Bersih today. Click here to reach its website |
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Global Bersih papers filed in Geneva on Jan 7, 2014:
Article 3 of the “Statutes of Global Bersih (a Malaysian NGO” states that:
Born of a spontaneous outpouring of worldwide support for the demands of the Bersih 2.0 rally in Malaysia on 9 July 2011, Global Bersih was created as a non-government organisation that remains politically independent. Its primary purpose is to support Malaysian civil society in its efforts to strengthen Malaysia's maturing democracy.
The Organisation pledges to perpetuate this vision as a Swiss association.
In the light of the demands made during and after the Bersih rallies, demands that continue to this day, the Organisation aims at the following goals, on behalf of Malaysia and its people:
- To provide active support to the stated demands of Bersih 2.0, that is: 1. Clean the electoral roll; 2. Reform the postal ballot; 3. Proper use of indelible ink; 4. Minimum election campaign period of 21 days; 5. Free and fair access to media by all parties participating in any election; 6. Strengthen public institutions; 7. Eradicate corruption; 8. Stop dirty politics.
- To urge the Government of Malaysia to take the necessary measures to set up a truly independent Election Commission of Malaysia, one that would take into account the recommendations made by independent and constitutional experts.
- To urge the Government of Malaysia to immediately instruct such an independent Commission to investigate the discrepancies highlighted in the electoral roll and to take the necessary steps to clean up the electoral roll before the re-delineation exercise, with involvement of the necessary stakeholders.
- Protect and further human, civil, citizenship and environmental rights for all Malaysians and for all time.
Download the full document
here
Global Bersih Declaration of Identity & Purpose
This document gives GB’s background and outlines its role as a global advocate, its organic structure, its outreach programmes and administrative matters like voting rights, membership and funding.
Under “Organic structure: GB of the people, for the people, by the people” is the following:
Recognising that activist groups have already existed independent of any central body, and worked successfully to their own localised programs, the GB SC should therefore offer only the foundation stones of the organisation to the wider movement.
- GB's Outreach should seek partnerships with existing individuals and groups who have stood for the cause on their own, independent of a central entity.
- GB should avoid prescribing or imposing a structure on the global community.
- GB works bottom-up: Our base begins with existing towns and cities on the activist map. Eventually, these towns and cities may naturally suggest the need for regional groupings. Therefore, it would be unnecessarily prescriptive to propose a top-down structure at this stage.
- As individuals from regions and towns reply to our Outreach appeal, a picture will naturally emerge of global Malaysia, and its key towns and cities. This picture will in time determine whether a structure is needed, and what form it may take.
- This picture will also inform the SC [Steering Committee] about how it should expand, and key co-ordinators will be invited to join the SC and be given voting rights.
- The SC should be prepared to invite up to 20 members for this administrative cycle i.e. till GE14, and including the six-month transition that should ideally follow.
Download the full document
here
