BERSIH! BERSIH! BERSIH!
The mass rally organized by BERSIH (comprises of 70 NGOs and political parties) on 10th November 2007 was great! I felt the joy and contentment participating in the rally more than seeing our Malaysia Spaceship passenger traveling to the space!
Once arrived at the Masjid Jamek LRT station, we found that the police had just fired several canisters of tear gas at the crowd in addition to discharging chemical-laced water. Yet, the crowd was not terrified with this little threat; they proceeded with the march heading to the Royal Palace, final destination where a memorandum calling for clean and fair elections would be handed to our beloved Sultan.
In the memorandum, few key immediate demands submitted by BERSIH, namely:
· The use of indelible ink to prevent double-voting;
· The abolishment of postal votes;
· Clean-up of the electoral roll;
· Equal and fair access to national media.
· A longer campaign period (minimum 21 days) to provide the citizenry sufficient time to choose the government and representatives they prefer.
Few weeks before this historical mass rally, the authority had done lots of tricks just to ban the meaningful peaceful assembly from taking place. Few tricks taken by them;
· No permit granted despite the proper application carried out by the organizer.
· Placed fear into the citizen by threatening them not to join the rally.
· Uttered to carry out heavy punishment onto those who join the rally; offenders to face the possibility of a fine of between RM2, 000 and RM10,000 and up to one-year jail term.
· Ordered the media to black out all coverage relates to this peaceful assembly.
Once arrived at the Masjid Jamek LRT station, we found that the police had just fired several canisters of tear gas at the crowd in addition to discharging chemical-laced water. Yet, the crowd was not terrified with this little threat; they proceeded with the march heading to the Royal Palace, final destination where a memorandum calling for clean and fair elections would be handed to our beloved Sultan.
In the memorandum, few key immediate demands submitted by BERSIH, namely:
· The use of indelible ink to prevent double-voting;
· The abolishment of postal votes;
· Clean-up of the electoral roll;
· Equal and fair access to national media.
· A longer campaign period (minimum 21 days) to provide the citizenry sufficient time to choose the government and representatives they prefer.
Few weeks before this historical mass rally, the authority had done lots of tricks just to ban the meaningful peaceful assembly from taking place. Few tricks taken by them;
· No permit granted despite the proper application carried out by the organizer.
· Placed fear into the citizen by threatening them not to join the rally.
· Uttered to carry out heavy punishment onto those who join the rally; offenders to face the possibility of a fine of between RM2, 000 and RM10,000 and up to one-year jail term.
· Ordered the media to black out all coverage relates to this peaceful assembly.
These senseless tricks didn’t seems to succeed, about 40,000 brave and concerned citizen regardless of race and religion showed up at this assembly.
We all carried with us a demand; we want fair, free and clean elections! Do away with all the dirty games during election, let’s play fairly.
