Socio-political movements that changed lives forever

SPECIAL REPORT | “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”

This was what Albert Einstein said about Mahatma Gandhi, the leader who employed non-violent civil disobedience against British rule in India.

The above quote is apt. Because in the same breath, generations of Malaysians will scarce believe that in 2007 three major socio-political movements in the span of three months would shape the next decade.

Several individuals were there among the tens of thousands. They saw the crowd, confronted the water cannons and tear gas.

What did they learn? What can they teach us? In this final part, five more activists reveal their thoughts on the major events 10 years ago.

A timeline of the events can be viewed here.

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1. Baharuddin Ismail (72, Hindraf and Bersih)

2007: Retired
2017: Retired

Septuagenarian Pak Din, as he is commonly known in civil society circuits, calls himself a "career rebel".

He never misses a rally. He lives by the motto “Jiwa saya jiwa Merdeka, pemikiran saya tidak boleh dijajah” (My spirit is the Merdeka spirit, my thoughts cannot be colonised).

What inspired you to participate in the movements?

I am a career rebel. During the golden age of the workers’ unions in the 1960s, strikes would break out whenever workers lose their jobs for being part of a union. They were broke, so I would send them biscuits to eat. At the end of the 1970s, I finally took part in the movement.

I found out about Bersih rally through the media. I was previously the Suaram secretary. I joined the organisation after Anwar Ibrahim was jailed. I left my post in 2004 or 2005.

In April 2001, together with Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais and others, I was jailed under the Internal Security Act. We were activists, but the government claimed we were trying to overthrow the government by force.

I was not sent to the Kamunting detention camp, but was arrested for 41 days. Basically, the government wanted to "fish" information from us but we were immune to their threats.

I have never joined any political parties, as I refuse to be told what to do. I am committed to the Merdeka spirit.

I don’t like being a part of big groups, and I don’t like just waiting around for big rallies to happen. In other words, I can’t join any groups. I will criticise whoever is in the wrong.

What do you remember about the rallies?

Bersih

At the time, I did not know who Maria Chin Abdullah and all these people were, but I went along with PKR’s Tian Chua. We left Sogo and saw many police officers (uniformed and plainclothes) around the area. We knew they were plainclothes police because we often took part in demonstrations.

I don’t remember the details, but it rained that day and I still remember wearing a yellow raincoat over my yellow T-shirt. We already guessed that the authorities would try to suppress and stop the rally, and that’s why after demonstrating at Sogo, we jumped on a friend’s motorcycle and headed towards the palace.

When we reached the palace, the rain subsided and there were thousands of people arriving all at once. The crowd was huge. I could not even see who was leading the rally but from afar, I saw Anwar Ibrahim and some other people handing over a memorandum.

I was so proud because members from different opposition parties had arrived together. They were united. Sadly, that is not the case today.

We left the Bersih rally at around 6pm. I was so shocked by the number of people who had shown up. It’s not easy to gather so many people. The last time I saw a crowd this size was in September 1998, when Anwar held a ceramah outside Masjid Negara after he was fired from his deputy prime minister post.

Subsequent Bersih rallies were also attended by crowds of a similar size. At that time, many people were deeply afraid of taking part in rallies. Once we overcame that fear, many people started attending them.

Hindraf

I am of Malay descent. Amidst the thousands of Indians in the protest, I was that rare Malay person. Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar is a friend of mine, and during Reformasi, when civil society groups were being dragged to court, he was their lawyer. He had never invited me to be part of the rallies, and I knew Hindraf had its own objectives, but I felt obliged to take part. It was my duty as a citizen.

As I drove past the Tabung Haji building towards Ampang at 6am, I saw many protestors and they were all behaving very orderly. At around 6.45am, the police began to fire tear gas (at the protesters) and there were even helicopters in the sky. The atmosphere was very tense but the crowd continued moving towards the Petronas Twin Towers.

When I arrived at the Petronas Twin Towers, I parked my car and joined the crowd. Things were only tense before 9am; after that it was fine. There were people giving speeches. The crowd was so large that the police found it hard to control what was going on.

I did not shout “Makkal Sakti” (the people’s power) like the others, but I did clap occasionally. But it was a cat-and-mouse game: I saw some people getting arrested.

The police did not anticipate such a large crowd. The protesters were streaming in from all directions - from Pudu, Brickfields, Ampang and all these other places. It was very orderly, even with the large crowds.

I was experienced and knew how to avoid being hit by the tear gas and water cannons. But during Bersih 2, I was hit by tear gas in Pudu. I can still remember like it was yesterday.

The first time I was ever hit by tear gas was on Sept 21, 1998. I was at Sogo that morning, and the police manhandled me. On that same night, I was hit by the police at Kampung Baru and had to get stitches on my head. Over 800 people were detained and more than 100 were eventually charged, including me.

I had been part of the Police Watch group organised by Uthayakumar and the others (from Hindraf), where we monitored those "death in custody" cases. So I knew some of the Hindraf members.

I may have been the only Malay among the protesters there, but the police were not shocked by my presence. They knew I was not from the government.

I left the Petronas Twin Towers at around 10am, and went for a cup of tea at a place opposite the Australian High Commission building. When I left at around 12 noon, the crowd had started to disperse.

Current state of democracy

Your loved ones, including your parents, spouse and children will always be worried that you’ll get arrested. So they would discourage you from taking part in rallies. But this is a struggle and if you want change, you need to make sacrifices. That’s simply how it is.

I broke this wall of fear many years ago, so no matter what happens, my family will support me. If I was arrested or even killed, they would accept it. This is my fate. The struggle is not only my own, but my generation’s.

Perhaps some people are unable to understand me and for others, civil society movements might seem insignificant, but the key is to avoid being static. You need to keep moving forward and support any move for change. This is the reason why I never miss a demonstration.

My analysis is that from Sept 1998 till 2007, demonstrations were stagnated. But in 2007, Bersih woke the public up. But this happened only after a long lull.

To the people casting their votes in the next general election, they need to look at the big picture. Our goal is to change the government.

But yes, change is difficult because fear remains. We need to break the high wall of fear. My suggestion is that the people need to be financially independent and self-sufficient. The obstacle in any struggle will always be your loved ones.

Ordinary people are disinterested in politics: when they wake up in the morning, all they think about is survival. How then can you influence the public?

The people may not be silent; they may know what is going on. But when the economy is bad and so many have lost their jobs - becoming Uber drivers, insurance salespeople, night market vendors and working more than ten hours a day - how will they have time to talk leisurely like what we are doing now?

I’m an old man, and I might not be able to see change take place (in my lifetime). But how do we bring forth change? So many people are struggling to make a living. They barely have 10 minutes to analyse the current political situation, how then do we achieve change?

In the past 10 years, we have seen change, but it’s not enough. We need a major overhaul. We need demonstrations like the Arab Spring.

Malaysia is like the third-world African nations, where change is hard. The judiciary, police, election commission and civil service are on the government’s side, so how do you win? Only by taking it to the streets.

2. Maria Chin Abdullah (61, Walk for Justice and Bersih)

2007: Women Development Collective committee member
2017: Bersih chairperson

Maria began participating in NGO movements since 1985, and has been fighting tirelessly for gender equality for 30 years. In 2006, she became one of the Bersih founders. She would later take on larger responsibilities by becoming the Bersih chairperson, and since then, the NGO had organised Bersih 4 and 5.

What inspired you to participate in the movements?

After the Lingam tape leak, "Walk for Justice" called for judicial reform. It was obvious that our judiciary was biased, and when I saw lawyers speaking out on this, I was very encouraged.

Before this, women groups had organised many protests - there was an occasion where we protested and staged a walk-out during a meeting at the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry. We had also protested outside the ministry after a sexist remark made against DAP MP Fong Po Kuan.

The Lingam tape scandal was a matter of concern to all women organisations as the judicial system would have a direct or indirect effect on women issues. That was why I supported the "Walk for Justice". A few women groups also participated in this event - such as Sisters in Islam (SIS), Women's Aid Organisation (WAO), Women's Movement Organisation and Empower.

However, the Bar Council wanted more lawyers’ participation, so not all the NGOs were invited. In the past, demonstrations were led by NGOs, but this was led by the lawyers instead. This was a very good movement of unity, where different organisations participated to fight for justice and human rights.

Bersih, Hindraf and "Walk for Justice" represented a very special moment. We saw people gathering to discuss the judicial system, Indian policies, voting system. I felt this was the watershed of Malaysian politics.

Not only had we started more discussions about human rights issues, there were also other issues to discuss and new members present. It wasn't just about women's rights issues or ISA. It was a moment where more people stepped out to protest.

I represented the Women’s Development Collective (WDC), Suaram and Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami) in the first Bersih secretariat. We mainly left it to the political parties to set the agenda and they organised some training workshops with their funds. I wasn't involved all that much in the rally planning. During the Bersih meetings, I merely drew their attention to some demands that had to be made. My involvement wasn't that great.

We later learnt that Bersih was going to hold a rally. I thought this was a good idea to test the waters regarding public opinion. Anwar Ibrahim was the key factor. He was from Umno and after the 1998 Reformasi movement, he was relentless about political reform. It was very interesting to see him leading the rally.

PAS lent their help too. Zulkefly Ahmad and Hatta Ramli were members of the supervision department, while Liew Chin Tong and the others were representatives from DAP. It was actually DAP that led the secretariat department. PAS was in charge of recruiting members while PKR organised many workshops - training people and encouraging them to get involved in the coming GE.

Back then, we had not thought about changing the government. However, once you hear the leaders speaking, you started to feel "I think the same way too". Their words sparked hope in you. This was very encouraging.

What do you remember about the rallies?

Walk for Justice

I was working with Empower at the time. I thought that participating in a large-scale rally like this was a good first experience and also a good way for us to help each other. In the past, we did not have demonstrations as frequently as the present, but the feeling of excitement and hope was greater than our fears.

Demonstrations are usually led by NGOs. This time, it was organised by lawyers. I never thought that lawyers would come forward to do this, but having experienced lawyers as well as the younger legal practitioners doing this was a good thing. Some people did not like large-scale demonstrations like this. However, based on the large crowd at the event, it showed that people from all classes had doubts about the system we were living with.

Bersih

I remember clearly that the majority of the Bersih participants were Malays. We walked from Sogo to the palace and this took more than an hour. It started to rain heavily and the police were even firing water cannons near the Masjid Jamek area. Other than that, the other meeting points were relatively peaceful.

When I walked to the national mosque and looked down from the pedestrian crossing, I thought: “Wow, where did these people come from?”. I was surprised at the large number of people, as I did not expect this. I felt excited and surprised. I was very encouraged by the fact that so many people shared the same objectives and were rallying together by my side.

I still remember my friends, who were around me at the time, saying: “Could you ever imagine there would be so many people?”. So many people across Malaysia came to the rally; that was amazing.

Current state of democracy

Bersih developed at a pace that may have been too fast at times. We had to respond to different topics and organise activities every week. When we planned a rally, we held discussions and made speeches across Malaysia every weekend in the run up to the rally. This job took up too much of our personal time and this has been going on for 10 years.

Take Ambiga as an example: she was involved in Bersih and did not spend much time with her family and had no time to deal with matters at her law firm. This was a rather big sacrifice. As for me, I will discuss a particular rally with my children before it started. This allows them to understand the agenda.

When the NGOs took over Bersih, Wong Chin Huat, Ambiga and I thought that it would be an advocacy group with 15 petitions.

Although we organised street demonstrations, we also wanted to do advocacy work to promote electoral reforms. However, we never thought that it would become so huge until Bersih 2 happened.

In fact, the three of us had not organised such a rally before. "Walk for Justice" was planned by the Bar Council and the others, while Ambiga was just its leader.

We met with the Election Commission (EC) to inform them of our petitions. However, we did not fully understand the electoral system - such as the voter list, division of constituencies, etc. We had just hoped that the coming elections would be fairer. But after going through Bersih 2, we started to understand that Bersih was not just an electoral reform organisation.

After Bersih 3, we were even more assured that Bersih did not just promote electoral reforms. People did not only take to the streets (because of Bersih) but also began initiating discussions. Malaysians had been living in fear and apathy, but they had chosen to remain silent most of the time.

There were many participants in Bersih 3. I still remember a group of youths asking, "When will the police fire the water cannons?". I answered, "Isn't it very peaceful right now? Why do we still need water cannons?", and they said, "Oh, we miss them".

This was very funny. Nonetheless, it seemingly reflected the people's passion and their wish to do something for the country as well as challenge the current system.

I think that after participating in the rallies, they (participants) gained a wider perspective. It enabled them to think critically.

A change of government was considered to be a myth for a very long time. People would think that you were trying to topple the government and reject the system. However, in a democracy, you can't be the leader forever. Having a two-party system does not equal to going against the government. It is a part of democracy and this discussion started since Bersih 4 and 5.

In 2007, the opposition parties had no leader and vision. The people were clueless about what the opposition was doing. Rallies were organised to fight against a corrupt regime, but the key factor was to have a systematic reform and to start giving attention to the problems of the people's livelihood.

3. Mohd Hatta Ramli (60, Walk for Justice and Bersih)

2007: Bersih committee member and PAS treasurer
2017: Kuala Krai MP and Amanah vice-president

Mohd Hatta once worked as a political secretary for the late PAS president Fadzil Noor. He was involved in the organisation of the Bersih 1 demonstration along with DAP, PKR and the NGOs. He also played a vital role in the formation of Amanah.

What inspired you to participate in the movements?

During the 2004 general election, I contested the Gombak parliamentary seat in Selangor. During the polls, the voting time in Selangor was extended by two hours. The FRU was even stationed in Gombak to chase the voters away. This was something that has never happened before. We did not even know who came in to vote.

The opposition experienced a disastrous election. However, we suspected there was electoral fraud that required us to voice out our dissatisfaction and protest. At first, we planned to have a rally to submit a protest referendum to the authorities, but this was cancelled three days before the rally.

I was quite unhappy as this was a disastrous election and yet the opposition parties were not united. Hence, we established Bersih and planned to a large-scale rally.

We had many demonstrations from 2005 until 2006, but they were unrelated to the elections. For instance, almost every week, we had demonstrations with demands to reduce the oil price. A lot of people were arrested, I was also arrested. After the 1998 Reformasi movement, demonstrations became another avenue for us to speak out - in addition to the various other actions such as submitting a memorandum.

During that time, the three opposition parties were collaborating. I can still remember that Anthony Loke, Teresa Kok, Liew Chin Tong and I worked together despite us not belonging to the same political party. We even introduced the NGOs to our collaboration. MTUC joined in too.

We organised workshops. As for rallies, we had our own set of system: first, we would travel across Malaysia and in every political talk, we encouraged the people to participate in the Bersih rally.

Next, we started to print posters and produce T-shirts. (We chose yellow because) PKR is blue, PAS is green while DAP is red. We didn't really have much choice in the colour selection.

We had countless meetings to delegate our work. The top leaders in all three parties were very supportive of this.

What do you remember about the rally?

Walk for Justice

Unlike other demonstrations that we had participated in, lawyers have good discipline. "Walk for Justice" was carried out according to plan. There was nothing unexpected that happened and although they were standing under the scorching sun, all the lawyers wore their black robes.

In my memory, this demonstration by the lawyers was the largest ever of its kind in history. In the past, although lawyers had spoken out on many matters, these were only done through notifications and general assemblies. They had never taken to the streets.

Bersih

We agreed on the time of departure and settled on Dataran Merdeka as our convergence point. However, before the rally, the government announced that anyone who wore a yellow shirt would be arrested. People who came from other places got worried and decided not to wear their yellow shirts before the rally.

Some buses could not enter the venue. Despite this, some people still managed to slip through. Our parties assigned some leaders to various meeting points and I was assigned to the rally at Masjid Jamek.

We made announcements, signalling the people to put on their yellow shirts in front of Masjid Jamek. The demonstrators took out their yellow shirts from their bags and put them on. This was a special moment. The police didn't even know how to react.

However, Masjid Jamek was not a good meeting point. It only had one exit, and the police had stationed themselves there. Even worse, it started to rain outside. We could only do our best to push our way out.

I was not afraid as there were many demonstrators, although it was a bit chaotic. Fear had no place when there were so many people.

In the end, the police fired tear gas at us. When we exited Masjid Jamek, some of us turned left into Jalan Maharajalela and some turned right towards Pudu bus station. Demonstrators from all other meeting points made their way to the palace.

However, being at Masjid Jamek, and with the police blockade, we couldn't go to the palace directly and had to take the farthest route. We took the pedestrian walk in front of Bank Negara. When we reached the palace, they had already submitted the memorandum.

The number of demonstrators was beyond our expectations. I was always pessimistic about the number of demonstrators. However, the first Bersih rally was very successful. The power of the rally could be felt by passersby; not just the demonstrators.

After the Bersih rally, we handed Bersih over to the NGOs. As a political party, protesting against unfair elections is not part of our job. However, we want the NGOs to stress the importance of this issue. The Election Commission rejected us due to the fact that we are a political entity. With NGOs, it would be different.

Current state of democracy

Nowadays NGOs are interested in elections and this is very important. In the past, it used to be just political parties having discussions about elections. Now the discussions have expanded to include topics such as the division of voting areas, and Bersih is the authority in this matter. People have also started to understand their rights.

For instance, in the case of the Internal Security Act (ISA), people used to think that demonstrations were futile. However, after a series of demonstrations, the ISA was finally abolished. Another example is the demonstration to oppose the use English language as a medium to teach science and math. In the end, the government scrapped the policy.

These days, people put high hopes on the opposition parties. However, for the opposition parties, each party has different visions and missions, the common goal is a change of government.

BN had existed for a long time and every BN component parties comply with Umno's demands. This is different for opposition parties, where each party can voice out their own opinions, which is a good thing.

Issues such as who would be suitable candidates for the election and who can become the Pakatan Harapan chairperson will always be problematic as these involve individuals.

If we linger on issues like these, we won't be able to go far. All parties can insist on their principles and think that their leaders are the best. However, during the last election, the opposition did very well, because they were united.

In the past, Anwar Ibrahim was the opposition leader. During the 2008 general election, despite being unable to contest for a parliamentary seat, he could still promote and lead the opposition.

Under his leadership, we achieved an even better result in 2013. Now we do not have just one leader. We have to find our similarities, and we actually do have many similarities amongst ourselves, such as toppling BN, anti-corruption, systemic reforms, etc.

4. Lee Khai Loon (39, Walk for Justice and Bersih)

2007: Youth for Change founder
2017: PKR's Machang Bubuk assemblyperson

After Lee declined two prestigious scholarships to study abroad, he transitioned from the student movements to the political arena. He was elected as an assemblyperson in the 13th general election.

What inspired you to participate in the movements?

In 2005, I decided to return to Malaysia from Hong Kong's Asian students' union to form Youth for Change. I had left Malaysia for more than three years. I realised that there were many new graduates and I pondered on ways to unite them to raise awareness on matters concerning the country.

At the time of "Walk for Justice", I was the Youth for Change recruiter, trying to encourage more youths to gain political awareness. The Lingam tape incident had exposed how the judiciary system was being manipulated. Subsequently, Youth for Change and the Bar Council Young Lawyers Committee organised forums and discussions in 2005, 2006 and 2007 on issues deemed sensitive.

At "Walk for Justice", the lawyers had taken to the streets, which was a rare occurrence in the past. This was why we decided to attend the walk to give them our support. It was not just the lawyers' problem; it was also a problem about the manipulation of the judicial system.

Besides that, Youth for Change also called for people to participate in the Bersih rally as many of our friends were discussing it online.

What do you remember about the rallies?

Walk for Justice

Transportation to enter Putrajaya was inconvenient. Youth for Change and Voice of Malaysia booked buses and they were all full. Everyone was afraid of being arrested by the police, but we thought that as this was organised by the Bar Council, the police might be more cautious in doing so.

We got off the buses together with the lawyers and walked from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s Office. The lawyers were wearing robes, and they looked like penguins. It was a spectacular scene. When we were there, we saw the crowd getting bigger.

Bersih

It was a period of terror and everyone did not know how the police would act. Before the rally, there was a rumour about large-scale arrests. As such, we did not put on our yellow shirts before the rally started.

The Bersih rally aimed to submit a memorandum to the Agong. We gathered at Central Market together with Chua Tian Chang and Irene Fernandez. At that time, Irene was wheelchair-bound.

There were around 30 people at Central Market in the beginning. No one knew what will happen and felt intimidated. We asked the participants to list the things they were afraid of, such as being arrested, beaten and attacked with water cannons. We then explained the issues to them to prepare them. We also told them about the possibility of being arrested and asked for their phone numbers.

With the Internet today, people can now post a list of things to take note of at a rally. At that time, we did not have this, so we felt that we were responsible to let people know what to expect at the rally.

We walked to Leboh Pasar Besar and the FRU was blocking the road. Our numbers grew but there were only a few police officers. We argued with the police for a while and then broke through their roadblocks, and marched to the palace.

Once we were there, as the PA system was not good, we could not hear the speeches and simply waited. This was the first time I felt that the road belonged to the people and it was also the first time I saw so many people in a rally, a multi-racial one.

Current state of democracy

Since the 1998 Reformasi movement, I felt people from different parts of society should play a role to change the country. The Reformasi era exposed how corrupt and abusive the authorities were. The system was bad, the police officers were hitting people while High Court judges could be "controlled".

These had all accumulated over time. 2007 was the year of change. Prior to that, there were also (advocacy work) by NGOs and professional groups, which contributed to the 2008 electoral tsunami. This allowed people to see the fruits of past efforts.

After the 2008 election, many activists became MPs. Initially, Youth for Change did not want to be a part of any political party. However, the whole situation changed.

The opposition won and formed the Selangor government, so we needed many people in the system. PKR's Bukit Lanjan assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong had asked me to be her assistant.

At that time, I wanted to apply for an overseas scholarship to continue my studies. Before I came back from Hong Kong in 2005, I had an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to continue my Master's degree for two years. However, I did not go, as I wanted to come back to Malaysia to form Youth for Change.

Another scholarship was the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy scholarship. I applied for that in 2007 and found out my application was successful after the 2008 general election.

I considered continuing my studies, but I decided to help Wong instead. Studying is an individual matter, which is an easier task.

Pakatan Rakyat was founded and this coalition of parties started to govern Selangor. There were huge challenges. It was also the time of the Teoh Beng Hock incident. We were the new face of the Selangor government and I had already promised to help. It would be irresponsible of me to leave all these and return to my studies.

Before 2008, the opposition parties had generally focussed on criticising the government but it later found itself leading state governments. We had to think of what we needed to do.

The most significant change was that in the past, state assemblypersons needed to deal with matters like the rubbish collection, road maintenance and cleanliness of their constituencies. Now, this has changed and such matters are handled by the local councillors.

You can also observe that if a government is not corrupt and does not abuse its power, we could give back resources to the voters. Although we were unable to complete many reforms in education, we could raise funds institutionally.

Looking back at 2007, no one could have predicted that there will be a political tsunami. As for now, there are even more uncertainties. Civic education is still very important. We need to open the people's eyes to the problems faced by our country and think of ways to reform.

We cannot remain stuck at a stage where we are only capable of shouting slogans about changing the government. We need to think about policies after the change of government, specifically on how they can be different from that of BN. They need to be very specific for the people to see hope.

5. Ngeow Chow Ying (43, Bersih)

2007: Newbie activist
2017: Human rights lawyer

Ngeow was introduced to the world of social movements at the first Bersih rally 10 years ago, and this had sparked her awareness regarding electoral, judicial and human rights matters.

She is an active advocate of the anti-capital punishment movement and had been the coordinator of the "Save Yang Vui Kong" campaign. After years of appeal, Yang Vui Kong's death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment.

What inspired you to participate in the movement?

After I returned to Malaysia, I participated in the activities of the Humanity Library, a civic education organisation. This was where I became acquainted with people from civil society groups. On the eve of Bersih, I was invited by my friend Liau Kok Fah to participate in the rally, which I did.

What do you remember about the rally?

I could not remember where we started our walk. I only remember that we walked a long distance. There were a lot of people along the way. Helicopters were hovering in the sky and we waved our hands and yellow flags at them. I think it rained during our return journey.

I was very excited at the time. It was my first rally experience. I did not know what water cannons and the FRU were. I was there merely because of my friend's invitation. Together with my friend and his companions, I gained the courage to hit the streets.

The people who participated in that rally with me are still active in social movements today. They were never absent from any of the Bersih rallies and even became helpers.

Current state of democracy

The 2008 general election happened shortly after the first Bersih rally. One day, on my way home, I received a phone call. The caller asked if I was willing to help in the upcoming general election.

I did participate in student activities during my university days, but they were mostly fun activities by the student unions. I studied hard to get a licence to practice law, but it did not inspire me. The Humanity Library, Bersih rally and 2008 general election inspired me to become active in social movements.

I was grateful that there were no major obstacles for me throughout this journey. I have my family’s support and I earn a living by working at a law firm. The happiest thing is that I made friends with many veterans and people who are involved in social movements.

In my opinion, public awareness has definitely grown throughout the past 10 years. The multiple rallies and their petitions and issues raised during the last two general elections played vital roles in bringing about change. The most significant improvement is that the people are no longer afraid of the authorities.

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This report is the last of a three-part series commemorating the 10th year anniversary of the social movements of 2007. It first appeared on Malaysiakini Chinese site and was translated by Gan Shao Qi.

A timeline of the events can be viewed here.

Part 1: Defining moments of 2007 - where are we now?

Part 2: Flashback 2007 - a watershed for Malaysian politics

Part 3: Socio-political movements that changed lives forever