MCMC ON BERSIH: Social

Media Impact On Law

Enforcement & Control of
Online Information

KHAIRUL NAIM BIN AHMAD

SAUFY
2014514209

WHAT IS BERSIH?
Bersih, which means "clean" in Malay, refers to the Coalition of Free
and Fair Elections. It is a civil society movement consisting of 84
non-government organizations calling for a thorough reform of the
electoral process in Malaysia.
It is led by Maria Chin Abdullah from the Women's Development
Collective (WDC). Its previous chief was former Bar Council
president Datuk S. Ambiga.
Bersih was first launched in November 2006 as a political partydriven movement with members consisting of opposition political
leaders and representatives from the civil society.

In April 2010, the movement was re-named Bersih 2.0 as a fully

non-partisan movement free from political influences.

WHAT ARE ITS DEMANDS?

Bersih has eight demands. These include the updating of the
electoral roll to remove "phantom voters" - deceased persons,
multiple persons registered under a single address or non-existent
addresses, and reform of postal ballot to allow voting not only for
Malaysian citizens living abroad, but also those within the country
who cannot vote in their constituency on polling day.
The group also demands the use of indelible ink to prevent voter
fraud and a minimum 21 days for campaigning to allow voters more
time to gather information and deliberate on their choices.

WHAT HAPPENED IN PAST

RALLIES?
Nov 10, 2007:
The first rally by Bersih at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur was
sparked by allegations of corruption and discrepancies in the
Malaysian election system that favoured the ruling Barisan Nasional
(BN) coalition. Supporters were urged to wear yellow T-shirts as a
symbol of protest. Organizers estimated that between 30,000 and
40,000 people from various races and all walks of life took part in
the rally.
The protest was credited for the shift in political landscape in
Malaysia's 2008 general election, when the BN failed to obtain a
two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969.

July 9, 2011:
The second rally, known as the Walk for Democracy, was organised
to protest alleged vote rigging and other electoral abuses in the
Sarawak state election in April 2011. An estimated 50,000 people
took part in the rally. Malaysians living in 32 cities overseas also
rallied in solidarity with the Kuala Lumpur protesters.
Police fired tear gas and used water cannons with chemical-laced
water at the demonstrators to stop the march. More than 1,000
people were reportedly arrested.
April 28, 2012:
In early April 2012, the Public Select Committee released a report of
its findings on electoral reform and it was passed in the House of
Representatives with no debate between the opposition and ruling
parties. An opposition minority report was not included in the final
report and none of Bersih's demands were met. This led to Bersih
calling for a third rally on April 28 that year.

 The protest was peaceful as the participants marched from various

locations towards Dataran Merdeka. but scuffles broke out when
some protesters broke through a police barricade, with police riot
units responding with chemical-laced water cannons and tear gas.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and five others were charged with
participating in a street protest but a Sessions Court later ordered a
discharge not amounting to an acquittal.

WHAT IS BERSIH 4.0?

Bersih 4.0 is the fourth rally planned for three cities on Aug 29-30 to
push for Prime Minister Najib Razak's resignation as well as
institutional reforms to prevent prime ministerial corruption. The rally
comes amid allegations in the Wall Street Journal that US$700 million
(S$981 million) in state funds was deposited into Mr Najib's personal
bank accounts and alleged mismanagement of debt-ridden state
investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Bersih says recent events in Malaysia, including the removal of Abdul
Gani Patail as Attorney-General and the removal of ministers who had
spoken out on the 1MDB issue, have triggered the call for the rally.
Due to the rally, MCMC warned that it would block access to websites
that promoted the rally or encouraged people to join Bersih 4 although
on August 25, 2015 Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk
Seri Salleh Said Keruak says the Malaysian Communications and
Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as no plans to block access to any
websites or social media platforms during the Bersih 4 rally.

Role of Social Media In Bersih

Malaysias press freedom is currently ranked at 143 of 196 countries
surveyed, and social media has played critical role for the
dissemination of information, mobilization of supporters and
transmission of real-time updates from Bersih organizers, and
between stakeholders, advocates, detractors, and participants of the
event.
Social media continuously played a major role in disseminating the
information or sharing opinion to date. Social media played a major
role in organizing rallies in Malaysia. No one could deny that the
success of Bersih 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 were due to the role played by
social media to publicize the events. With limited exposure on the
traditional media, opposition depends on the social media to
organize events, disseminate information, to gather, etc.

 Due to intense government control of mainstream media, organizers

and proponents of the rally have taken to social media in order to
communicate to their stakeholders and to rally support. Why?
Beyond the obvious reason that social media is far harder to police,
Bersih organizers understood that the rally critically needed support
from the people of Malaysia. And what better way to do that than a
dialogue that is facilitated by Twitter, Facebook, and blogging?
social media provides people a common space to identify
themselves together and publicly was the drive for this social
movement.
Social media allowed people to know about current issues in
addition to enabling frustrated Malaysians overseas to participate in
Bersih rallies that took place in the respective countries they were
in, which sparked an international Bersih movement. It also pushed
fence sitters into a corner and made debates more visible and highly
interactive.

Government Controls and

Censorship
Given the extensive government control over Malaysias media, the
lack of improvement in overall press freedoms, and the increasing
difficulty in gaining access to information, the NGO group Reporters
Without Borders in its 2013 World Press Freedom Index
downgraded Malaysia from an already low 122 in 2012 to 145 in
2013 out of 179 countries.
governments decision to refuse to issue a print publications license
to the Malaysiakini news website, a decision which has been
appealed to Malaysias supreme court.
this decision has highlighted the governments determination to
control news and information and its fear of the independent media
that are developing in Malaysia.

Conclusion
Social media should be considered as a double edged sword as it
has its own drawbacks if it is used excessively. Social media brings
some negative influences to the people when they try to replace the
real world relationship with online relationship.
Social media not only can be used to express views and
disseminate information about one but it also can be used to
propagate lies, and slanders to ruin other peoples personality.
If the government continues to amend the laws then Malaysia would
be moving backwards.
Amending more laws to curtail the freedom in social media would
only contradict the governments efforts to become a transparent
government.
The government only needs to make full use of the existing laws.