INTERVIEW | Last week, Malaysians were greeted with the news that then Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah was contemplating venturing into politics, which culminated in her announcement this morning that she is seeking to run in the 14th general election.

According to Maria, however, the idea came to her over a year ago, when she was put under solitary confinement in a small windowless room with no mattress.

She was detained at Bukit Aman between Nov 18 and Nov 28, 2016, while being investigated under Section 124C of the Penal Code for purportedly engaging in activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

Read more: Maria reveals her wish list if elected MP

“I was thinking inside. I had time. The idea was there and I was thinking to myself: How can we push the reform agenda?

“Because we’ve tried. It's not that we don't try, and it's not like we don't want to talk to them (the government). We have tried to talk to them. Then we have taken the agenda to the streets.

“I think the (Bersih) protests were big enough that in any other country, something would have happened, but very little had actually happened here.

“So now it is actually bringing our voice to parliament and see what we can do.

“I'm not promising a lot. It is just like Bersih where we have tried so many things. This is another platform for us try new ideas,” she told Malaysiakini in an interview in Petaling Jaya today, hours after announcing her entry into politics.

Since her release from detention, Maria said, she discussed the idea with her friends and family, including her predecessor Ambiga Sreenevasan, who herself thought of joining politics to press for reform.

Among the issues that caused her to hesitate was the fact that the opposition coalition was fronted by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Maria’s late husband, Yunus Lebai Ali, was among those detained under Mahathir’s Operasi Lalang crackdown in 1987.

“Yeah, it’s hard,” she chuckled. “It’s so hard to reconcile because he's the one who signed the detention order.

“I feel that, yes, by being Harapan-friendly it implicitly means you accept the leadership that has been decided by Harapan as well, but I will hold them to the manifesto.

“If they step out of line, then of course I will raise my concerns. So it will be based on principles, rather than on the individual,” she said.

Testing the waters

Apart from this, she said she had to also consider what impact her decision would have on Bersih, and on her family.

“So I took my time, simply because I wanted to talk to not just the political parties, but also civil society organisations.

“We had two, three meetings with CSOs, certain individuals and close friends. And so that's why it took me so long to come to that decision.

“Then of course I'd have to deal with my family; to discuss with them and what would be the implication to them,” she said.

She said the civil society groups she spoke to thought it would be a good idea for her to test the waters, and to see whether in Malaysia, principles such as participatory democracy could be carried out at the parliamentary level.

Although seeming unsure about whether she made the right decision, she is confident of having the support she needs to see her run through.

She admitted not knowing if politics will be a good fit for her, but nevertheless expressed her hope that her run will set an example for others who also hail from civil society.

“Some of us are thinking that this is the first step to encourage more people from CSOs or any other background to consider this as an alternative strategy,” she said.

Asked how her three sons reacted to her political ambitions, Maria said there was dead silence from them for at least a week before they decided that they would help her to campaign.

“I mean they went through Sosma, and it was really baptism of fire for them because they had to talk to the media, they had to speak in ceramah, things that they had never done before.

“So they are just wondering if this campaign will involve that, but I think it will be a little bit different.”

Under Harapan’s banner

When she had almost made up her mind, she and her friends started asking politicians whether it would be a good idea for her to contest as an independent under the Pakatan Harapan’s banner.

Asked about Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin’s statement that she had approached Maria to rope her in as an election candidate, Maria said this actually came relatively late in the decision-making process, having almost made up her mind by then.

As for Ambiga however, Maria said the former Bar Council president eventually decided against joining politics due to personal reasons.

“Of course, it would be good (if she joined). If you look at the situation today, it would be wonderful if even Marina (Mahathir) joins me. But this is not an easy decision.

“Having gone through that and made that decision, I understand that at a certain point you can, and maybe in five years’ time, they will? So, we'll never know,” she said.

Being partisan

Following her announcement today, various groups came out to claim that it vindicated accusations that Bersih had always been a pro-opposition movement.

Maria however appeared unfazed, and said such attacks had been anticipated. She said Bersih had stayed true to its cause and urged critics to judge the coalition by the work it carries out.

“The government has not actually engaged us, but the attack on us has always to suppress our voice.

“If anything you do is seen as critical of the government, they will say that you are the opposition, or that you are anti-government, you want to overthrow the government, that Bersih is actually the mouthpiece of the opposition.

“That is the kind of labelling that governments and even non-state actors do to silence us.

“So of course I expected that if I join politics, this will actually come and true enough, it came. I think it has to be separated, look at the work that Bersih does.

"Has it in any way been a mouthpiece of the political parties? It hasn’t,” she insisted.

Following the 2016 Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections, all of BN, PAS and Harapan came under fire from Bersih for supposedly engaging in vote-buying.

She also stressed that her political run comes after her resignation as Bersih’s chairperson, and therefore her actions from this point forward should not tarnish their good name.

Interview conducted by Annabelle Lee, Koh Jun Lin, Yap Jia Hee.