Live – Ambiga speaks in Penang

It’s a full house at the Caring Society hall in Penang, with Bersih co-chair Ambiga Sreenevasan the main speaker at a forum on Democracy and Elections, organised by social reform group Aliran.

More than 500 people are in the hall waiting for Ambiga to step up to speak.

Right now, Aliran member Subramaniam Pillay, who is also a Bersih steering committee member, is featured on a video giving us the background of the Bersih movement.

Meanwhile, it is pouring outside and the corridor outside the hall on the first floor is flooding a little. Hope the water doesn’t enter the hall!

Aliran president Francis Loh welcomes the crowd and now Aliran secretary Mustafa K Anuar takes over as emcee. He promises the participants that images of the audience won’t be photo-edited to show a much larger crowd squeezed like sardines! The crowd roars knowingly.

The immediate past president of Aliran, P Ramakrishnan, outlines the corruption and decay in Malaysian society, including education. He also laments eroding national unity and the emergence of racist groups such as Perkasa.

Videos are now being shown of Pak Samad reading his Unggun Bersih poem and the Bersih 3.0 rally in Penang on 28 April 2012.

Mustafa now introduces Ambiga as the main speaker.

Ambiga highlights the plight of Suaram, which has been harassed of late after its consistent exposure of the Scorpene submarines deal.

She congratulates the people of Penang on their impressive turnout at the Bersih 3.0 rally at the Esplanade in Penang on 28 April 2012.

She laments the prevalence of postal votes and expresses dissatisfaction with the lack of integrity of the electoral rolls, which now cannot be challenged in court. Even the media are unfair in their coverage of the elections, she points out.

She refers to an International Crisis Group report, which notes the strengthening of civil society. The report notes that the Bersih movement is a “game-changer”.

The government for its part has ignored a serious issue: corruption.

But there is selective prosecution. She recalls that Teoh Beng Hock died following a corruption investigation into just RM2,000.

The next general elections are going to be very contentious, and people are getting more interested and engaged because they realise that the rot has to stop now.

“Dictatorships have elections too but it doesn’t mean they are democracy but if you have clean and fair elections, you will be working your way to a vibrant democracy. If you have clean and fair elections, it makes your MPs more accountable and reduces corruption.” Studies have found that the poor will also be better represented.

Meanwhile, she said it is ridiculous that our politicians are not saying anything about political violence. “It shows me there is tacit support for it.”

On the other hand, the young woman who stepped on the Prime Minister’s image was handcuffed and publicly condemned.

Is there hope at the end of the day? Yes, there’s a lot of hope, she said, “because there are a lot of good right-thinking Malaysians who want to put things right. They are not going to accept second best or people talking rubbish.”

“Vote for people who will respect our Federal Constitution, who will do something to end corruption, for goodness sake,” she said to loud applause.

Wong Chin Huat describes how ordinary Malaysians cast aside their old fears and came out in their tens of thousands for the Bersih 3.0 rally. “You have more and more Malaysians coming out. You know you are not alone.”

“We need to renew our independence and reclaim our country.”

Focus on clean and fair elections, adds Ambiga. “Everything we do from now will help, I promise you.”

Chin Huat, responding to a question from the floor, says election workers are not allowed to write anything on ballot papers before handing them to the voters.

He stresses that he believes Malaysians will not take electoral fraud sitting down. “One of the wonderful things of Bersih 3.0 is that we have seen ordinary Malaysians coming out, and Malaysians regardless of their ethno-religious background are standing by one another.”

Ambiga notes that the last three or four court judgments have given her hope e.g. the decision on whether Bersih is unlawful, the damages awarded to the ISA detainees, the decision in the Malaysiakini case and the quashing of the decision to ban a Sisters in Islam book. “I have hope because of this and maybe we are entering a new era. It feels as if many people are now getting more engaged.”

The forum ends with a presentation of Aliran T-shirts to Ambiga and Chin Huat, who receive a standing ovation amidst chants of “Bersih! Bersih!”