Cramped among a crowd of yellow in the LRT coach heading toward Masjid Jamek, I met a lady in black jeans and blue blouse, tudung and a yellow armband. “Many of my Malay friends support Bersih,” she said, “but they takut to lose their job.” “Same here,” said an Indian in a yellow T-shirt and floral harem pants. “Some of my friends are school teachers. Some work in the university.”

It’s been three weeks now. And, I still wonder if Bersih 4’s strength in numbers on Aug 29-30 can also be its weakest link if its future campaigns for change do not reflect the Malaysian demographics - particularly the Malay heartland.

No, I don’t mean to racialise the two-day protests. The fact is that politics and ethnicities are inextricably linked in the current power structure, and where the mainstream and vernacular press in their coverage of public affairs perpetuate the communal politics. This political haze will not lift as long as Umno, via the mainstream media, dominates the national conversation.

Right wing groups - including Utusan Malaysia and Mingguan Malaysia - only needed to detect any imagery of non-Malay dissent to frame Bersih 4 as being driven by disgruntled Chinese-led interest groups legitimised by the DAP.

Unfortunately, from the segues in some speeches and placards to the majority of volunteers and protesters, the tone and imageries were outstandingly Chinese. Which gave the prime minister and his Umno minions ammunition to discredit the protests as a Chinese ‘uprising’.

It gave Pesaka (National Silat Federation) and other Malay-rights champions cause to stupidly strut their imagined supremacy in a counter-rally disguised as a Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu on Malaysia Day.

I know from experience on the ground that Malays, Chinese and Indians don’t naturally dislike or distrust each other. We get along just fine. We just hate the racism, the nepotism, the corruption, patronage, fraud and unaccountability that permeate the current government. We just hate what Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said was the third-world mentality among Malaysians living in a country with first-world infrastructure.

Future non-violent campaigns certainly need to evolve into a multiethnic people’s movement with a first-world mentality fighting for these shared goals: equitable distribution of wealth and economic opportunities, replace affirmative action with a needs-based system, fair access to higher education, safety on the streets, free and open media, and more effective check and balance to ensure that ultimate power lies with the people.

However, people’s protests are not guaranteed to succeed simply because they are non-violent.

An empirical analysis of 323 violent and nonviolent resistance campaigns between 1900 and 2006 by two American academics found that “non-violent campaigns fail to achieve their objectives when they are unable to overcome the challenge of participation, when they fail to recruit a robust, diverse, and broad-based membership that can erode the power base of the adversary and maintain resilience in the face of repression.” (p.11)

If there is to be a Bersih 5, it needs to engage with the Malay majority from the rural areas (currently gerrymandered to the government’s favour), the civil servants, the mainstream media, the Malay intelligentsia, the police and military. With the latter two, it’s a long shot.

The key to transformational change

Nonetheless, working with the Malay majority who occupy these sectors is the key that unlocks the door to transformational change. But as long as the government apparatus, the Malay heartland, and civil servants are well served and rewarded, in many cases undeservingly, getting their real participation to fight for transformational change will be hard to reach, but “not impossible until it happens” (Gandhi).

Where we end up will depend on the actions we take today, and the Malay majority’s will and capacity for progressive change. That desperate ‘Anyone but Umno’ slogan for change will not hold. What’s the alternative to Umno? I am not sure. I believe the multitudes of discontented Malaysians who sacrificed their long weekend at Dataran Merdeka and Jalan Tun Perak don’t either.

Reformasi-inspired movements have yet to communicate to the people their vision of an alternative politico-economic system that Malaysians can picture, understand and confidently believe that it will restore their trust in a new government and its institutions.

As long as the Malay heartland sees Umno as their protector, I’m inclined to think Umno will be in government in my lifetime. Given this harsh political reality, I can only hope that the Umno-led government will change from within to become more just and more inclusive so as to govern better for all Malaysians.

I simply expect our government to be led by a prime minister whom the Malays, Chinese and Indians can trust, love and respect (such as Tunku Abdul Rahman), and a cabinet of intelligent ministers who are well informed and engaged in the substance of their portfolio, ministers who can articulate their positions on economic, socio-cultural and communal issues without resorting to alarmist racial threats.

I came across this excerpt from one of Tunku Abdul Rahman’s ( photo ) speeches at Umno’s general assembly in 1971.

Commenting on the backlash from the lack of forethought in implementing the New Economic Policy under the present PM’s father, Abdul Razak Hussein, he said: “An attempt was made to fill the (30 percent) target without thought for the ability and the capability of attaining it. When I advised against it they condemned me as a traitor and they were helped unfortunately by some senior members of the party.

“They gained the day and I left the government soon after. Some became rich overnight while others became despicable Ali Babas and the country suffered economic set-backs and a relapse we live to regret to this day.

“Our administration was going smoothly, our economy was viable, our ringgit was good. Then there was a sudden attempt by the government after 1970 to force economic reforms to which I referred earlier. This jolted every cautious man, every businessman and it gave rise to feelings of uncertainty, then panic.

“Capital began to leave the country; inflation reared its ugly head and became the order of the day. A house which cost $15,000 was suddenly inflated sky-high. Since then we have been living in fear of what’s to come” (pp.14-15). I see history repeating itself today.

ERIC LOO left Malaysia for Australia in 1986 to work as a journalist. He is currently a journalism fellow at University of Wollongong, Australia, and editor of a refereed journal Asia Pacific Media Educator . Email: eloo@uow.edu.au