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Social Media and the Bersih Electoral Reform Movement in Malaysia Research Article 2016 Global Media Journal ISSN 1550-7521 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51 Sweeping the Unclean: Social Media Merlyna Lim* and the Bersih Electoral Reform Canada Research Chair in Digital Media Movement in Malaysia & Global Network Society, Carleton University, Canada Abstract *Corresponding author: In this artcle I investgate how social media was utlized and appropriated in the Merlyna Lim electoral reform movement in Malaysia called Bersih. By identfying and analyzing roles of three dominant social platorms in the Bersih movement, [email protected] namely blogging, Facebook, and Twiter, I reveal that social media is both the site and part of the contestatons of power. Social media is integral to the shaping of Bersih movement's imaginaries, practces, and trajectories. As a social Canada Research Chair in Digital Media & Global Network Society, Communicaton & and material artfact, every technological platorm such as blogging, Facebook, Media Studies, Carleton University, Otawa, and Twiter has its own socio-politcal propertes that postulate distnctve roles ON K1V8N3,Canada. and limitatons for its users. Keywords: Malaysia; Bersih; Politcs; Blogging; Social media; Facebook; Twiter Tel: 6135202600 Received: August 05, 2016; Accepted: September 16, 2016; Published: October 15, Citation: Lim M. Sweeping the Unclean: 2016 Social Media and the Bersih Electoral Reform Movement in Malaysia. Global Media Journal. 2016, 14:27. Introducton "It was 1.45 pm in Kuala Lumpur.The Light Rail Transit (LRT) staton at Pasar Seni was unusually busy. A crowd of thousands, screamed. Smoke was everywhere. It started looking like a war mostly young, walked towards the Dataran Merdeka, a historic zone." square once a focal point and cricket pitch for the Britsh colonial presence in Malaysia. Wearing “Bersih 3.0” T-shirts, some of The excerpt above is taken from a feld-note I wrote while which were green, they looked high-spirited. Along the walk observing and ‘experiencing’ the Bersih 3.0 rally in Malaysia there were some young men handing out free botles of mineral on 28 April 2012. I saw the crowd in green Bersih 3.0 water. Various slogans were shouted: “Bersih! Bersih! We want T-shirts. I heard people chantng. I saw protesters dispersed fair and clean electons! Reformasi! Reform!” as the police started fring tear gas canisters and water canons. People cheering, loud gunshots, smoke rising, the Afer more than twenty minutes of walking, the crowd was forced crowd screaming, I witnessed them all. Yet, I was not 'there'. to stop. Apparently the road was blocked by about 100 riot police. I did not physically experience any of these. Being 9,000 miles One of the Bersih leaders told the crowd to sit down and let away, I was sitng in front of my computer with multiple the Bersih leaders proceed to Dataran Merdeka. The protesters windows opened on the monitor screen. I saw the six-hour followed the order briefy but they quickly became restless. Many protest journey, from 1 pm to 7 pm, developing over tme started walking to multple directons. A small crowd was walking from multtudes of tweets, links, photos, and videos transmited towards the Masjid Jamek LRT staton, fve-minutes walk away from the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Johor Baru. The from Dataran Merdeka, and soon the crowd grew larger and impressive amount of live reportng made a real tme observaton larger. possible. Within 24 hours, there were over 300,000 tweets, 2,000 YouTube videos, and 300 relevant blog posts posted online. This At 2.15 pm, the Masjid Jamek staton had become over crowded. could possibly be one of the most recorded popular protests of At 2.34 pm, Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan took a the year. megaphone and announced that the rally had been a great success telling the crowd to disperse. The insistent crowd responded by Coming from the Malay word for ‘clean’, Bersih is a popular chantng: Dataran! Dataran! The chantng turned to panic when name for “The Coaliton of Free and Fair Electons” atemptng to a warning shot was fred and tear gas was deployed. People reform the electoral system in Malaysia by addressing pervasive ` This article is available in: http://www.globalmediajournal.com 1 ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51 electoral misconducts to sweep any ‘unclean’ practces to ensure choice for the twenty frst century urban actvism such as the free and fair electon. Many credited the frst Bersih rally in 2007 Bersih movement. In examining and contextualizing the roles as a major contributng factor to a shif in the politcal landscape of social media in Malaysian politcs through the case of Bersih in the 2008 electon where the ruling coaliton Barisan Natonal movement, my main queston is: What role did social media play failed to obtain a two-third super majority for the frst tme since in the formaton and development of the movement? 1969. The third and the largest rally, Bersih 3.0 in 2012, just a year In the following secton I ofer a brief historical overview of the before the next electon, can be credited for not only mobilizing internet development its entanglement with politcal actvism in the highest voter turnout in the Malaysian history but also with the country to help contextualizing the role of social media in the the relatve success of an oppositon coaliton Pakatan Rakyat. Bersih movement. Although the ruling coaliton stll secured the majority of seats, the oppositon won 50.9% of the popular vote (SPR, 2013). By the Online Actvism in Malaysia tme of writng this artcle, Bersih movement just held its fourth mass rally, Bersih 4.0, on August 2015, calling not only for a clean The history of the internet in Malaysia begins in 1990 when Jaring, electon but also the resignaton of Prime Minister Najib Razak. the frst ISP (Internet Service Provider), was launched. In 1995, TMNet, the Malaysia’s second ISP, was born, followed by a growth Beyond Bersih, the use of digital media for politcal actvism in of internet hosts in 1996. Since then there has been a steady rise Malaysia has a long and impressive trajectory. It began with the in internet access for both commercial and residental uses. As of use of the pre-social media internet during the Reformasi (a Malay June 2015, Malaysia's broadband household penetraton rate is word meaning ‘reform’ in English) movement in 1998 [1,2] that 70.4% with 23 million users representng 77.6% of the populaton took place concurrently with a similar movement in Indonesia [8], a tremendous gain from only 3.7 million in 2000 [9]. where the internet also played a substantal role [3,4]. Malaysian Reformasi movement refers to the movement that began in the The Malaysian government has always been an enthusiastc wake of the former Prime Minister, Mahathir bin Mohammad’s supporter of the technology from the beginning and has invested controversial dismissal of his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, in September enormously in the internet infrastructure. The Multmedia Super 1998. This movement called for social and politcal reforms that Corridor (MSC), a ‘cyber region’ located in the south of Kuala opposed Mahathir’s ‘cronyistc’ responses to the fnancial crisis Lumpur, was established in 1996, the MSC as a “global center [5]. Since the late 1990s, Southeast Asia has been among places for multmedia technologies and content” and “its aims was to with the most vibrant digital actvism. The world history of digital ‘leapfrog’ Malaysia from the Industrial Era to an Informaton Era” media and politcal actvism that started with the 1994 Zapatsta [9]. In spite of its unfailing support for the development of the uprising [6,7], however, has predominantly centered on North internet, the government contnues to feel ambivalent about its America, Europe, and, recently, the Middle East, marginalizing politcal and social signifcances. It has always been torn between stories coming from the Southeast Asian context [1]. the desire to promote the technology for economic prosperity and shield its citzens from being exposed to ‘unwanted informaton’. In this artcle, I examine and contextualize the role(s) of Meanwhile, the history of online actvism in Malaysia can be the internet and social media as being manifested in the on-the- traced back to 1995, when the technology emerged as the ground actvism and embedded in the contour of societal changes platorm for free discussion in the country’s otherwise tghtly and transformatons. The main method used in this research is controlled media environment. While Malaysian law allowed for online/ofine observaton that involves ‘hanging out’ in both non- strict controls of print media since 1984, the government decided geographical (online) and geographical (in Kuala Lumpur) spaces. not to censor the internet. A provision of the Communicaton and Online observaton was conducted by joining online communites Media Act (CMA) in 1998 explicitly states that nothing in the Act (e.g. Bersih Facebook pages/groups) and subscribing to top “shall be construed as permitng the censorship of the internet” Malaysian socio-politcal blogs and news portals (they were (Artcle 3). In practce, however, the internet is not free. The selected based on their ranks on Alexa.com). Field notes were government can use other media-related and libel law against any writen as narratves of observatons and the texts of relevant partes who have diferent voices than the authorites. Examples online communicatons were recorded electronically. I also of such laws: 1960 Internal Security Act, 1967 Police Act, 1966 collected Twiter and Facebook data, especially during the Bersih Societes Act, 1971 Sediton Act, 1972 Ofcial Secrets Act, 1984 3.0 rally, to augment my feld notes and to specifcally analyze the Printng Presses and Publicaton Act and the 2012 amendment to paterns of usage of these tools prior and during the rallies.
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