Perth may be the most isolated capital city in the world but the Malaysians living there are certainly not isolated from what is happening in their country, Malaysia.
Last Saturday more than 500 of them showed they were concerned for clean and fair elections in Malaysia and turned up for the global Bersih 3.0 sit-in rally in front of the Malaysian Consulate at Adelaide Terrace.
More photos can be seen on YouTube .
Everyone gave the ‘thumbs up' for Bersih 3.0 Perth style.
There were loud shouts of ‘Demokrasi' and ‘Hidup Rakyat' and ‘Bersih Bersih' but none uttered anything offensive.
They sang the national anthem, ‘Negara-ku' at Langley Park and before the Malaysian Consulate.
Bersih is the sort of movement that wins a Nobel Peace prize because it is done in the most peaceful manner imaginable and why so many Malaysians from every background support it.
Its moral jihad for truth, freedom and justice is not unlike the fight for women's plebiscite of yesteryears, or even the civil rights movement in the United States.
Its leaders have acted with the utmost dignity, integrity, responsibility and self-control despite being unfairly and callously slandered by those who fear a clean and fair general election.
Government-sponsored students were barred from participating and I was told ‘spies' were there to report them by a participant who pointed him out to me. We should expect Judas and those who hide in Trojan Horses to be on the payroll of their political masters.
An oasis of yellow in the popular riverside park greeted our eyes before the starting time at 2.00pm. Many arrived an hour earlier.
The organisers reminded the crowd that Bersih's aim is clean and fair elections and not political and to avoid making partisan political statements.
When the ballot box is not pure, corrupted with the rancid fruit of fraud, then it becomes the mother of all corruption and the reason why
Bersih exists to save the integrity of the ballot box.
An independent audit of the electoral roll is necessary before the elections can be conducted otherwise a fraud will be perpetrated upon the rakyat, wittingly or unwittingly.
Elections must not only be clean and fair but be seen to be clean and fair.
Perth rose to the global call but will it achieve anything? I think so, however small its contribution.
Tiny drops of water make the downpour.
Every citizen is like a tiny drop of water.
Together they make the difference.
The drizzle will turn into a torrent.
The torrent will knock the house of corruption down.
Perth is part of the global Bersih torrent.
Everyone including the government jumps on the bandwagon of change but real change can only come from the people, from an incorruptible ballot box, not anything else.
Only the rakyat can deliver real change when the government apparently won't. As it is the government's right to do as it thinks fit, it is also the people's right to do as the people think fit.
It is not only about rights but what is right.
From Canada to Japan across Malaysia the same Bersih cry - clean and fair elections - is heard. Everyone hears and understands the desperate cry except the Election Commission.
That they participated in Bersih 3.0 shows Malaysians abroad are as concerned as their fellow Malaysians at home for their country and criticisms that Malaysians abroad are ignorant or do not care belong in the dustbin of lies.
The critics owe Malaysians abroad an apology.
Those who live abroad should be allowed to vote from where they are though others already registered my return home to vote.
If the government and the Election Commission are still in denial and refuse to act to clean up the electoral roll and ensure clean and fair elections then they can expect the people from a large cross-section of the populace to continue to respond to the call of Bersih to take to the streets, even in Perth and elsewhere.
If the problems uncovered in the electoral rolls are honest mistakes then why not let others be the judge.
Open everything up for public inspection. And why the rush to legislate against open scrutiny of votes during election time?
It is impossible for any group of politicians to cling on to power with any credibility when the unfair and unclean electoral system is their only passage to political survival.
It falls on the shoulders of every voter to vote for good governance and neutralise the effects of fraud.
Who else will help the rakyat if the rakyat don't help themselves?
I did not stay until the end and despite a bad cough and cold was glad I attended Bersih 3.0.
If it had achieved anything it showed the people's resolve even when abroad to do something that will show Malaysians at home that they care and are aware of what's happening and want to make a difference.
I did my part for Malaysia just by being present and that was good enough for ‘Bersihkan Perth' and those who took the trouble to give Malaysians abroad a collective voice.
Several speakers reiterated the Bersih demands and an Australian MP Robin Chapple clarified that Australia would not accept back into the country any processed rare earth material from the Lynas project in Malaysia, contrary to misleading statements.
In the flame of Bersih burns the light of justice for the ballot box and the people's hope for change.
It will only burn brighter and more intensely and Malaysians of all races and ages will be brought together to share a common cause, a unity that the hypocrisy and vanity of slogans could never achieve.
Malaysians want back their hijacked Merdeka nation and good governance. Their future lies in good governance not corruption and more bad governance.
They want free, clean and fair elections so they know their votes are valuable and equal, not corrupted and negated by fraud and crooked electoral boundaries.
Malaysians no longer want to be cheated by fraudulent elections.
This is the clear message of the 300,000 and countless thousands in 70 different places worldwide, who took to the streets in solidarity with their fellow Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.
I know there are some good and decent politicians in the government like in the other public institutions including the police where a former top police officer is defending his reputation and integrity against unfair slander.
They need to listen to their moral conscience and use their influence for good. Bad company corrupts good character and good company must be the salt of the earth.
Bersih is the salt in the corrupted political culture that threatens to sink clean and fair elections unless the shortcomings are corrected.
Promote, sack, transfer - do what you want with the incumbent heads of the Electoral Commission but give the rakyat a fresh, clean and fair electoral umpire with clean and fair rules and a clean and fair election.
That is all the rakyat asks.
Is that too much to ask from the ‘world's greatest democracy?"
The hope of Bersih is the hope of a nation, the hope for clean and fair elections to prevail so that a clean and fair government may lead the rakyat into their promised Merdeka land.
In Kuala Lumpur no one should have died, no one should have been hurt, no one should have been manhandled, and no one should have been arrested, especially the journalists doing their jobs, and no one should be punished for trying to make their country a better place.
In Perth the people made their point and had their say, it was a peaceful and democratic event, no one was badly treated, no one felt threatened, no one was demonised and the police watched from a distance with folded arms.
The only concern the people had after the event was if they would make it to their car without getting wet unlike their fellow Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur who had to run away from the police or face arrest, and worse, be beaten.
God bless the rakyat of Malaysia and everywhere.
