KUALA LUMPUR: Bersih starts its nationwide roadshow on Saturday in the hope of drumming up flagging rural Malay support for its cause and attract Malay participation in its upcoming rally on Nov 19.
The ambitious month-long programme covers over 200 cities, towns and villages and will be flagged off by chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah in Kota Baru.
Maria said the convoy will help Malaysians better understand the issues and the importance of standing together.
However, political analysts predict that the campaign will fail to win Malay support as long as Pas is opposed to it.
Pas is no longer a main plank of the electoral protest movement and is non-committal towards the upcoming rally.
“They are trying to drum-up Malay support in the absence of Pas, but this will not meet with much success. Malays are drawn to national political personalities who articulate issues for them, and this time, they are all missing from the Bersih organisation,” said an academic.
The academic pointed out that past Bersih rallies were major successes because they had unqualified support from Malay opposition icons like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is now in prison, and the late Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
“These guys are no longer around to lend support and I am very sceptical about whether Bersih can fill the vacuum they have left,” the academic said.
Bersih has been relying on social media and its urban Chinese supporters’ network to galvanise people to join its rallies. This is the first time it is resorting to a rural roadshow that is designed to convince rural Malaysia of the issues behind Bersih rallies.
Malay support for Bersih is crucial, because Malays not only make up the largest segment of voters, they are also supporters of either Umno or Pas.
Bersih would regard their rallies as successes if many Malays participate. It can then renew its call for Najib to resign.
The fourth rally held on Aug 31 last year, although well-attended by Chinese participants, was not supported by rural Malays. Only about 10 per cent of protesters were Malays on the first day of the rally, and this increased to about 25 per cent on the second day – but more significantly, the rallies were marred by several ugly incidents.
One stands out above all the others – several ethnic Chinese protesters stomping on pictures of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, which caused an immediate national outcry.
Pro-Malay groups seized on the incident to lambast Bersih for being anti-Malay.
Alienating Malays even more was the fact that Pas had been expelled from the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in mid-2015, and the new Pakatan Harapan coalition was formed without Pas participation.
It was left to PKR and PAN, both parties lacking in grassroots support, to bring Malays for the protest – and predictably, they did a poor job of it.
“We decided to go on a roadshow ourselves and sensitise rural voters to Bersih's demands,” said a Bersih leader.
“We hope to make some inroads,” he said.
Bersih leaders are hoping for the turnout to be racially balanced.
“We are hoping to convince Pas and Umno grassroots to attend, as they too are affected by the 1MDB issue. But we are ready to admit failure unless large numbers of Malays turn up for the Nov 19 rally,” he said.
He added that a repeat of last year’s low numbers of Malays would damage Bersih and the political parties connected to it. A low turnout would be counterproductive and food for the racial divide narrative.
“It would be seized by pro-Malay groups to paint Bersih and its opposition party supporters as a non-Malay movement. The opposite end is a government representing the Malay majority,” he said.
It could even boost Malay support for Najib if more Chinese and fewer Malays turn out on Nov 19.
Another factor that could contribute to a low turnout is political fatigue that has hit many Malaysians in a big way, with many new actors entering the political stage.
Bersih leaders should not just be worried about flagging Malay support for their Nov 19 rally, but also about the larger Malaysian society’s level of support for yet another politically-tainted event.