How can I not write about BERSIH 2.0 when the whole country is talking about it, right?
Honestly, I didn't give a damn initially. I only had a very vague idea about it... it is some initiative from some lady called Ambiga..and somewhat related to the opposition and the government is very against it. That's all I knew...
Sometime in May/ June, I noticed, some friends 'liking' the Bersih page in Facebook, then , many started to have a Bersih logo on their profile pictures, but I didn't dwell further.
Occasionally, I'd glanced through updates from Malaysia Insider via Facebook news feed but didn't really click into them to find out more. Basically, the word Bersih appeared often enough in my news feed..so indirectly I was forced to 'know' about it existence.
Tony Pua, the only politician that I 'follow' in Facebook stated something that somehow got stuck in my wandering mind, it went something like this .."Thanks to the BN goons, Bersih 2.0 is becoming more well known than ever" .
How true!
The final trigger (for me) was when I read Patrick Teoh's simple yet informative blog post - What's it all about? on June 28th, where he listed out the 8 simple points about Bersih 2.0. I read and understood immediately. From then on, I kept track on the developments.
The analysts were right to say that the cyber space played a huge role in making Bersih 2.0 such a phenomenon. Bersih 2.0, July 9th, 2011,
A Malaysiakini article on July 10th, (a day after) , described the crowd as such:
"Notably, the crowd was made up of many Malaysians in their 20s who were first-time demonstrators.
Ibrahim Suffian, director of independent research house Merdeka Centre, dubbed this group as the Facebook generation."
Even the traffic to my little blog here was affected by all the hype. Just because of an entry about Ambiga (here) posted in 2009. Every other day, at least 10 new visitors landed on the page. Some 14 person clicked the 'like' facebook button hence attracted even more visitors via Facebook. It is now the most read entry in the past 4 weeks at 227 pageviews, that's 40% of total pageviews in the same period!
Below is the visitors overview chart from Google Analytics.
Check out the orange trend line (new visitors) which is now way above the green line (returning visitors i.e. loyal readers supposedly). Total visitors per day increased by at least 50% as of today.
How can I not pay attention to Bersih 2.0 when it keeps popping into my everyday life..even though I'm almost totally un-exposed to the mainstream media.
On the night of July 8th, everyone chose to skip the usual Friday night out because of the road closures.
Many were caught in unnecessary traffic jams because of the closures. Frustrations built up even more. Since there was nothing much to do at home, we turned to the cyber space for entertainment....Facebook in particular. "They can shut down the city but not Facebook, let's paint Facebook YELLOW" - one of my friend initiated. Good idea ..so I changed my pretty profile pic to a plain YELLOW background. By the next day, my sis' profile became a Sunflower while my bro's became a Yellow Elephant (cartoon). Lol.
By Saturday noon, me and my sis were glued to our Iphones (while watching over our nephew in the park) getting latest updates via blogs, Facebook and tweets. I finally had to Like the Bersih page to get the latest updates.
By evening, I was all over Malaysia Insider, Malaysiakini, #Bersihstories on Twitter reading all I can find about the rally. I told my father to quit waiting for the TV news..they won't report the real scenario !. I showed him some of the videos instead.
I'm still so awed by Aunty Bersih. I still wish I will be like her one day. MCA claimed that Aunty Bersih is an actress paid by the Opposition to cheat us. How can it be??
Read so many good stories from those who participated. It was really moving and inspiring.
My friend, Fel did ask me if I am supporting it. Not sure what she meant by 'supporting' but my stand then was quite simple..I said .."well, I have no intention to join the rally, the only way or move I can make is during the real elections, for now there is nothing I can do"
So..I was really really surprise to see so many people, people like me, who are not aligned to any political party, normal citizens like me, working executives like me, retirees, students, some came as far as from other states came to support the rally regardless of race, income class, gender.....despite the inconveniences.
I'm ashamed. But..I still can't give a definite Yes, if I'm asked to join Bersih 3.0.
That's why I truly admire people like Aunty Bersih. My salute you all of you.
I read quite a few entries via Malaysia Insider, they were all very touching. I don't even know which one to highlight now. Here's one..that I chose conveniently cos I recommended in Facebook (yes..Facebook, again):
I went to the rally as a spectator. I returned a believer. And I had ice cream with the FRU.
By Charis Ding
....I ended up in Pudu, watching the marchers and listening to their shouts of "Hidup Rakyat!". When we had to run later, at one point it was tricky to escape and we had to climb a railing at Pudu station. In the huru-hara, the man beside me, instead of just climbing up himself, was yelling to his friend – "Tolong amoi ini dulu!" He seemed more anxious for me than he was for himself, or even I was for myself.
(Read more..HERE)
Truly touching..all of them. I wish I had the courage to be part of it.
Here's an amazing video to summarise it all.
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