Early 2000s to Present Day Protests and Violence Present Day

The Bersih walk in Malaysia was one of the most recent significant events in Malaysian history. Bersih (meaning “clean”), is an organization that started off in the early 2000s, aiming for electoral reforms. The group grew to a larger extent reaching multiple factors hopeful for change. Just last year, thousands of Malays planned a large protest called “A Walk for Democracy”. The government outlawed the group and declared the wearing of yellow (the color of protest) to be illegal the week before the planned walk. All of Malaysia was very much aware of the approaching protestests, yet rather than preventing it from happening, the government simply set up barricades and established further protests as illegal. 

Last month, protesters once again demanding for electoral reforms were tear-gassed by the police after disregarding their warnings. This lead to a great upset, and the violence once again continued in Malaysia with members of Bersih against police and government forces. 

Bersih is now a global organization, countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, and The United States have joined in attempt to gain fair and free elections for Malaysia. neighboring and supporting countries have assembled all over the world, making Bersih a stronger and more powerful organization. Their main goal is for fair elections, but they additionally aim for the end of corruption and dirty politics, and  free and fair access to media. initially they just wanted to give malaysia an electoral system that delivers a fundamental democratic right to its citizens. Bersih wants to gain these goals before the 13th general election which is undecided in terms of the date. 


Below is a video from April 28th, 2012 of a Bersih organization in San Francisco assembling to support free and fair elections