COMMENT Socio-political movements are the products of the political economy of uneven global development in the 21st Century. They have been formed spontaneously to address broad range of issues that have not been addressed by other social and political forces.

Social movements have brought significant progressive changes in countries long accustomed to authoritarian regimes responsible for rampant power abuse and corruption.

However, social and political movements have their limits; their very structure or lack of it, their spontaneity and ad hoc response to issues might impose limits on the desire for long-term change.

Anyway, these movements are here to stay and how long they stay in a particular political and social space will depend on variety of factors.

Bersih ( meaning clean) is a burgeoning social and political movement in Malaysia. It started off in 2006 to address problems of the lack of electoral reforms for the holding of free and fair elections.

In its early three periodic struggles, the focus was on the need to reform the electoral system but lately Bersih seems to incorporate broader of visions of society.

Hence, the Bersih 4 rally planned for Aug 29-30 intends to go beyond electoral reforms to call for the removal of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for his involvement in corrupt practices related to the disbursement of funds belonging the country’s investment arm - 1MDB.

Since Najib has refused to relinquish his position as result of the corrupt practice of receiving RM2.6 billion in his private bank accounts, Bersih thinks that a major rally is necessary to force Najib of out office.

Bersih is non-violent socio-political movement and its rallies and struggles are passive in nature. Being a non-partisan movement, Bersih seems to have obtained the support of hundreds, thousands, even millions of Malaysians from all walks of life.

More than 60 non-governmental organisations have thrown their support behind Bersih’s demands. Apart from the goal of removing Najib from office and the restoration of credibility and legitimacy to institutions that have been made non-effective, Bersih wants to ensure that citizens seriously “re-claim” their stake in the country, something that had been stolen from them by corrupt and mean politicians.

Right-thinking Malaysians would have no problems with the aims and objectives of Bersih 4. Bersih might have had a humble beginning, but today it stands out as global movement for justice and democracy.

A powerful platform for progressive ideas

Malaysians are proud that Bersih has come to fill an important vacuum that could not be filled by other organisations. What the opposition could not do at a broader or more universal scale, Bersih has done it.

However, unlike the political parties, Bersih is not a structured entity; it rises and goes down according the prevailing political, economic and social conditions. In many ways, it does not supplant the role of political parties or institutions, but rather complements their role in many ways.

In fact, there is dialectical relationship between Bersih and the opposition forces: the opposition forces support Bersih’s demands by mobilising their members and their participation in turn nourishes the opposition forces, whether they are political parties or non-governmental organisations.

Bersih provides a powerful platform for the nourishment and growth of progressive ideas. What political parties might take years to do, Bersih, by the sheer power of mobilising, can inculcate values and ideas through sheer praxis.

In fact, there is symbiotic relationship between Bersih and the opposition forces. Both segments graft on each other to produce a powerful, combined effect that might be quite powerful in terms of desiring certain desirable changes.

However, Bersih is not a narrow political movement; its leaders have eschewed party politics, but maintain excellent relationship with the opposition parties and, for that matter, even with certain like-minded politicians in the ruling coalition.

Beyond this, Bersih has no intention to contest or take part in elections. Its pursuit is broad and macro. It goals are long-term without being reduced to the immediate needs of certain organisations. There is no permanent group of leaders, leaders come and go.

Bersih has provided the focal point for Malaysians to gather and articulate their demands for the betterment of the country. Bersih leaders are honest, dedicated and mean well for the country and its people.

While Bersih has enormous strength and vitality in mobilising Malaysians, something that no political party can do, its weakness can be adduced to the fact that its responses to issues in Malaysian politics are ad hoc in nature.

In other words, Bersih only emerges if there are problems. There is no sense of permanent belonging, as in the case of individuals belonging to political parties and other organisations. Once the fervour of the Bersih movement subsides, those who participated in it return to the folds of their organisations - political parties, non-governmental organisations and others.

Whether Bersih might transform itself into a mass political movement with its attendant structures is difficult to gauge at the moment, although some of those behind the movement could have gone into political parties for another level of struggle.

However, for the time being, it would be unfair to expect Bersih to seriously plan for the future, given its amorphous and loose structure. Bersih is doing fine in whatever it is doing. Bersih 4 will constitute an important aspect of the larger struggle to remove corrupt and mean politicians from office.

In the words of Karl Polanyi, society is like a pendulum. When there is too much repression, the pendulum will swing back against the oppressors.

Bersih is a collective response of the Malaysian society swinging back like the pendulum against those politicians who have mismanaged and ruined the country. For Bersih, it is time for a powerful swing back!

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the assemblyperson for Perai.