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 & 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 .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 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 . 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, , 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. the 1950 Evidences Act, Secton 114A. Media technologies have always been part of social movements. The politcal usage of the internet in Malaysia was notable in Insurgent movements would naturally embrace the medium that the 1998 Reformasi movement when it became the principal suits people most. Malaysia is no excepton; every single major means of communicaton among actvists and an alternatve wave of protests in Malaysia is associated with lively alternatve source of informaton and news for Malaysians [10]. Although media. In the early 20th century, Malay journalists, poets and the movement did not lead to any regime change, it gave birth to essayists played important roles in radicalizing the Malay Malaysia’s online actvism and rejuvenated civil society actvism in majority and developing the ant-colonial sentment against the country [10,11]. Malaysiakini, the country’s most progressive the Britsh Empire. In the 1998 Reformasi, the oppositon group and powerful alternatve online media, was founded during made an intensive use of online alternatve news to contest the the Reformasi in 1999 and survived both politcal and fnancial ruling regime. Social media therefore is an obvious media of struggles to establish its place in the natonal media landscape. In 2 This article is available in: www.globalmediajournal.com ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

March 2015, Malaysiakini was ranked 14th most visited website electoral reform is seen as a pathway toward changes in politcs in Malaysia while the pro-government Star Online ranked 15th and society. (Alexa.com). Also founded during the Reformasi is Harakah Daily, The long dominaton of BN cannot be separated from the an online news outlet for the oppositonal party, Part Islam issue of race and ethnicity. As a multracial society, Malaysia is seMalaysia, which quickly became the most sophistcated and divided along racial lines. BN was originally conceptualized as content-rich partsan website [12]. Other prominent ones include: a confederaton politcal partes-the United Malays Natonal a website of a pro-justce NGO Aliran.com, a human right website Organizaton, the Malaysian Chinese Associaton, and the Suaram.net, and various websites of the Hindraf (Hindu Rights Malaysian Indian Congress-representng three main ethnic Acton Force), a coaliton of NGOs who advocate on behalf of groups in Malaysia, namely Malays, Chinese, and Indians. BN Malaysia’s (largely Hindu) Indian community [13]. By facilitatng adapted the colonial practce of racial politcs, ‘divide-and-rule’, the emergence of these alternatve media, the internet “allows to keep apart various ethnic groups politcally, economically, and for the creaton of community of interest … [that] is directly socially and to justfy its image as the guardian of social and racial related to the reconstructon of the of-line community of the harmony [18]. The racial riot of 1969 haunts the Malaysian psyche Malaysian naton” [14]. and it is frequently used in general electons to discourage people In 2000, following the imprisonment of a Reformasi movement from exercising their electoral choice. In the ofcial record, the leader Anwar Ibrahim, streets protests were virtually Sino-Malay sectarian violence that broke out on 13 May 1969, disappeared. The decline of Reformasi as a street actvism, occurred in the afermath of the 1969 general electon where the however, did not coincide with the decline of online actvism. oppositon partes won against the ruling coaliton Alliance Party, Pro-reform actvists contnued using the digital media space as a former name of BN. their subaltern counterpublic space, an alternatve space to the While Bersih defnes itself as a non-partsan civil society dominant bourgeois public sphere to cultvate hidden transcripts movement, its prime supporters are the three main Malaysian to communicate, deliberate, post and spread informaton online oppositonal politcal partes-Pan (PAS), [15]. The alternatve online media sphere contnued to “ground Democratc Acton Party (DAP) and Part Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), its online actvites in everyday politcs” [16], paved the way for which together formed the oppositon coaliton Pakatan Rakyat the emergence of the blogosphere actvism in 2002 and provided (PR), meaning ‘People’s Pact’ or ‘People’s Alliance’. Bersih’s the basis and ingredients for the making of Bersih movement. development, in some ways, goes hand in hand with the Here I argue that two decades of Malaysian online-ofine emergence and trajectory of PR. Arguably, Bersih’s relatvely actvism since 1990s provided a groundwork for the relatve successful mult-ethic mobilizaton cannot be separated from success of present day Bersih movement. the involvement of PR. While the movement itself has not been successful in ushering Malaysia to a post racial era, Bersih leaders The Bersih Movement and actvists contnuously atempted to go beyond a racial Bersih is an alliance of 62 non-governmental organizatons division in mobilizing their supporters. seeking to reform the natonal electoral system ofcially formed Public protests were a rarity in Malaysia. In 1998-1999 there were on 23 November 2006. The call of Bersih can be summarized in some sparks of street actvism with the emergence of Reformasi eight points: clean the electoral roll to be free from irregularites; reform postal ballot system to ensure that all citzens are able movement; and, yet, the authorites successfully cracked them to exercise their right to vote; use of indelible ink; free and fair down. Since 2000, the Malaysian streets had become sterile, access to media; 21 days minimum campaign period; strengthen apolitcal. Except the ant Iraq protests in 2003, there was no and reform public insttutons to act independently, uphold laws, major protest took place in 2000 to 2006. The and protect human rights; stop corrupton; and stop dirty politcs. and subsequent street protests that followed (such as Hindraf The frst four points were put forward in 2007, the rest were rallies, Repeal the Internal Security Act rally, the Occupy Dataran) added in 2011. had turned this upside down. The frst public demonstraton in November 2007 drew about 40,000 partcipants [19]. The second Bersih’s focus on electoral reform is largely related to the fact that rally in July 2011 stll drew about 50,000 protesters, despite being in the last forty years Malaysia has been ruled by the Natonal deemed illegal by the government who combated the protesters Front or Barisan Natonal (BN), the world’s longest ruling coaliton, with the riot squad, tear gas, and street arrests [20]. Marked by led by the United Malays Natonal Organizaton (UMNO), the road blockages, riot police, tear gas, and water canon, the 2012 world’s longest ruling party. Under BN’s leadership, Malaysia’s Bersih 3.0 rally drew around 150,000 to 200,000 protesters [21]. economic development had been outstanding and the middle- In the face of government’s crackdowns and criminalizaton, the class populaton is growing rapidly. Its economic development, movement turned out to be increasingly popular and became a however, is not followed by politcal change [17]. BN bases its signifcant social and politcal force in Malaysia. More than just politcal legitmacy upon outstanding economic performance and a movement for electoral reforms, Bersih also contributed to popular sovereignty gained from winning the majority of electoral the increase levels of politcal partcipaton among young urban votes, even though multparty electons were far from fully free Malaysians, as refected in the 2013 General Electon’s voter or fair [11]. Untl the 2008 Electons, BN’s performance had been turnout. More importantly, even though BN secured a majority strong where in every single electon it always gained about two of seats (60%) to form the federal government, it gained a mere third (or more) of the popular votes. For Bersih, consequently, 47.4% of the popular vote while the oppositonal coaliton, PR, 3 ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

won 50.9% [22]. For BN, this was the worst electon result since -for videos and photos, some of which were subsequently 1969. disseminated through blogs, Facebook, and Twiter. The use of social media for politcal actvism in the context of Bersih should also be understood vis-à-vis government’s control Blogging over public gatherings in physical spaces. While the consttuton The role of blogging in the Bersih movement cannot be separated grants freedom of assembly and associaton, it provides for from the contnuous existence of the contentous blogosphere restrictons deemed necessary in the interests of security, public in Malaysia since 2002 [24]. Most Malaysian blogs were not order, or morality, ofen through the use of the 1967 Police Act. politcal, but many top bloggers were. A 2007 survey by Sabahan. This act defned a public assembly as a gathering of fve or more com [25] identfed 9 out of Malaysia’s top 50 bloggers as politcal persons that required a police permit. Just months afer the bloggers. My further examinaton revealed that 8 out of these Bersih 2.0 rally, the government amended the Police Act. The 9 bloggers were critcal of BN. The Bersih movement itself was new act, the 2012 Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA), was drafed to partally born out of social interactons within the Malaysian replace Secton 27 of the Police Act, which means police permits politcal blogosphere. Among top bloggers there were Bersih for mass assemblies is no longer required. Organizers, however, leaders and prominent actvists such as Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit must notfy the police within 10 days before the gathering date Siang, Jef Ooi, and Raja Petra Kamaruddin. and the police will respond to the notfcaton while imposing Labeled as ‘citzen journalism’, blogging is perceived as a restrictons and conditons [23]. The PAA also bans any assembly powerful medium to positvely transform politcs, civil society, in the form of street protest and any gatherings within 50 meters and mainstream media [26]. Gillmor [26] argues that by allowing of ‘prohibited places’ such as airports, petrol statons, hospitals, the audience to partcipate in the producton and disseminaton railway statons, places of worships, and schools. Critcs called the of informaton and to engage in discussions and debate free from PAA ‘undemocratc’ and perceived it as more restrictve that the the gatekeeping practces, blogging provides an avenue for a new previous Act. With such restrictons, mobilizing public protest was form of grassroots journalism and contributes to the plurality of extremely discouraged. Due to limitatons and barriers from using voices. However, others argue that politcal bloggers’ ideological physical space, Bersih actvists turned to digital space for planning biases tend to promote polarizaton [27]. Indeed, research in the and mobilizing the rallies as well as expanding and sustaining the American [28,29] and Iranian [30] contexts show that blogging movement. Despite the ban, Bersih rallies contnued to take place community appeared to be polarized along party or ideological publicly, on the streets and in the squares. lines. Research on the blogosphere in Indonesia [31] and Saudi Arabia [32,33], however, reveals more nuanced and complex #Bersih on Social Media pictures. In these context, blogosphere is neither a novel public Bersih had embraced digital media since it was established sphere where ratonal communicatve discourse take place nor in 2006. Over ensuing years, however, its digital media an ideologically driven polarized sphere. But, rather, it is a sphere operatons have undergone an evoluton. At the beginning of with plurality of voices, allowing for diferences, nuances, and its development, Bersih made use of websites, blogging, and even counter-hegemonic voices to collectvely emerge. YouTube as its main tools for deliberaton and mobilizaton, with The early Malaysian blogosphere was not an ideal public sphere intermitent uses of Flickr. Blogging was a natural choice as Bersih founded on ratonal-critcal discourse [34] where everyone was formed during the peak of Malaysian politcal blogging. The is an equal partcipant as envisioned by Gilmor [26]. However, incorporaton of YouTube and Flickr in 2006, as well as Facebook instead of being fragmented and/or polarized along the party or in 2008 and Twiter in 2011, unsurprisingly, followed the surfacing ideological lines, the early Malaysian blogging community was and popularity of these tools among Malaysians, especially the united by its oppositon to the ruling elites. From 2002 to 2007, Malaysian youth. the blogosphere was both a vital space for online dissidents and a Many social networking tools are uniformly called ‘social media’. place where the Malaysian government exercised its hegemonic Nonetheless, each is a partcular social and material artfact power. Despite the government’s crackdown and arrest of blogger with its own socio-politcal propertes that postulate distnctve actvists, the Malaysian blogosphere contnued to be politcally afordances and limitatons for its users. Each, therefore, might vibrant. By 2007, the Malaysian blogosphere had developed to contribute a unique set of roles for the Bersih movement. What new opportunites for citzen actvism. The blogosphere facilitated are these roles? In order to answer this queston, instead of actvists to discuss and identfy the ‘repertoire of contenton’ [35] treatng social media as monolithic, I examine how each of - which refers to the set of various tools and actons available the three dominant platorms, namely blogging, Facebook, and to a movemen-and issues that were important for publics. The Twiter, interacts with and contribute to the movement. I years of politcal conversatons that thrived in the blogosphere do so by tracing the roles of these platorms in shaping the had enabled a brokerage [35] that allowed people to organize movement from its genesis through its successive developments and assimilate their experiences and deliberate beyond existng to its unfolding as interconnected events over a period of tme. politcal boundaries. Civil society in Malaysia was typically While not discussed individually, I also recognize the characterized as being divided along ethnic lines. Blogging, importance of YouTube and Flickr. In Bersih movement these however, brought together otherwise disconnected Malaysian platorms were generally used as placeholders-though most actvists and concerned individuals with diferent ideologies (e.g. popular YouTube videos could generate voluminous comments- Islamist, secular, or liberal) and backgrounds (e.g. Malay, Chinese, 4 This article is available in: www.globalmediajournal.com ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

or Tamil/Indian) and thus contributed to the expansion of the imaginaries to develop” [43]. To radically depart from the reformist network. Blogging provided a complementary site, vis- dominant imaginary of socio-politcal project of the state, as à-vis a physical site, for reformists to cultvate alternatve, or even being reinforced by the ruling party, Malaysian reformists needed radical, imaginaton that led to the birth of the Bersih movement. “sites for narratves of resistance to be created, communicated, and practced” [44]. In the absent of physical non-hegemonic With the peak of the blogging popularity, the 2007 Bersih rally civic sites, the blogosphere emerged as one of the sites where the was largely socialized and mobilized online using websites and reformists imagined and re-imagined the possibility of the future blogs. Unsurprisingly, Malaysian bloggers were geographically that was diferent than what was forced by the state. The state’s clustered, with over 60 percent of them were located in Kuala imagined project to envision an alternatve, diferent, and more Lumpur and Selangor [36]. Ulcny’s [37] study estmated that “500 desirable future. Blogging is useful to generate conversatons to 1000 bloggers consttuted the actve Malaysian [sociopolitcal] among bloggers and blog readers. It is, however, limited in its blogosphere, with a small, very actve core of 75 to 100 bloggers. capacity to facilitate more horizontal interacton and to difuse The frst Bersih and Hindraf rallies in 2007 were the most popular informaton and grow networks. In its successive developments topics in this sphere, generatng 1080 posts and 1527 posts beyond the imaginaries, social movement needs to incorporate respectvely [37]. other tools than just the blogosphere. During the course of the movement, blogs were heavily used before, during, and afer the big rallies. An ofcial Bersih website Facebook was used to amplify and extend traditonal communicaton With the popularity of social media, in 2008 Bersih started eforts in conventonal mode of acton (e.g. press release). incorporatng YouTube and Facebook into its communicaton Bersih partcipants made use of their personal blogs to mobilize and mobilizaton strategy. Facebook was the second most campaigns and to report from the streets in an efort to counter visited site in Malaysia afer Google. The frst Facebook page of state-controlled media interpretatons of the events and capitalize Bersih 2.0 ttled “Bersih 2.0 [Ofcial]” was created only 17 days on any conficts or incidents in the protests (such as the arrest or before the rally day, on 22 June 2011, and within two weeks it the abuse). atracted more than 190,000 fans. It functoned mostly as a In the 2007 Bersih protests, mainstream media painted a negatve central news desk where Bersih supporters posted and checked portrayal of a group of actvists running amok in the center of on updates, announcements, photos, and videos. Beyond Bersih Kuala Lumpur and caused bad trafc problems [38-40]. The Bersih 2.0 rally, Bersih movement maintains its existence on Facebook movement was labeled as illegal, forbidden, and even prohibited by establishing Bersih 3.0 as well as Bersih 4.0 pages. The later by the (Islamic) faith (haram) [38,39]. Bloggers countered the was created in September 2013 to support the ‘future’ fourth coverage by postng their own pictures of the peaceful marches Bersih rally held in August 2015. The frst and ‘ofcial’ Bersih 2.0 alongside video clips from Al Jazeera and BCC exposing the Facebook page, though, contnues to maintain its dominance in police’s heavy-handed actons against demonstrators. terms of total number of fans and actvity level. A similar incident happened in days afer the Bersih 2.0 rally The Bersih case shows that Facebook served four major functons. in July 2011 when the Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein First, Bersih actvists used Facebook to connect with large social released a statement that there was no ‘police brutality’ and that networks, especially the youth populaton. In 2008, over 50% acton would be taken against online media and bloggers if they of Facebook users in Malaysia were under 25 [43]. Facebook had posted false reports [41]. Despite the threat, thousands of infrastructure allows conversatons to happen in all one-to-one, bloggers responded to this statement by contemporaneously one-to-many, and many-to-many levels, making it easy to difuse postng photos and YouTube videos to create a visual archive of informaton in multple overlapping networks and to mobilize the ‘brutality’ of the riot police. Alternatve media portals such across diverse publics. Additonally, it encourages sharing, as MalaysiaKini and Harakah Daily supported this collectve interactng, and difusing informaton in multple and overlapped acton of bloggers by further amplifying their voices through networks. Here, Facebook enabled the rise and expansion of their media coverage. By so doing, the bloggers were not only weak-te networks to “unlock and expose interpersonal networks successful in countering the government’s narratve they were to external infuences individuals in distant networks” [44] thus also triumphant in generatng public sympathy and making it facilitatng the spread of informaton to the masses and increasing difcult for the government to target any individual blogger. partcipaton in the movement. By generatng alternatve discourse, Bersih bloggers challenged Second, Facebook helps the organizaton of the movement by conventonal politcal and media authorites. The symbiosis facilitatng a consensus decision-making on simple and practcal between actvists and blogosphere resulted in a new form of issues. For example, when the Bersih actvists’ request to use engagement, an online civic space that was both subversive Merdeka Stadium for the rally was rejected by the Merdeka and empowering and helped reformers to defne and construct Heritage Trust (a Malaysian government trust who manages meaning for the movement’s partcipants. Merdeka stadium and Stadium Negara), the rejecton leter “Social movements start from [the] ability to imagine” [42]. was posted on Facebook to solicit quick comments. It quickly In societes where dissents are repressed, such as in Malaysia, generated 344 ‘likes’ and 221 comments nearly all suggestng “power is exercised through the propagaton of dominant socio- that the Bersih rally take to the streets and stck with the original politcal imaginaries that leave no space for alternatve, radical plan. Bersih organizers responded to this request by creatng a

5 ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51 simple pool with a queston: “Do you agree to keep going with the Twiter Bersih 2.0 public assembly?” to which 101,345 voted yes while 89,040 voted no. This kind of public decision-making process The movement started using Twiter during the Bersih 2.0 in happened quite frequently on Bersih Facebook page. Facebook 2011 and contnued to use it in the Bersih 3.0 and 4.0. Unlike was partcularly important in the preparatons leading to the Facebook, which was mostly used before and afer the protest, rally. Bersih users discussed protest sites, gathering locatons (for Twiter was predominantly during the physical protest on the rally marching), and sharing maps and informaton about these places. days. Twiter was used to exchange on-the-ground updates and However, it is important to note that rigorous conversatons and informaton. Protestors and organizers tweeted on where to go, in-depth deliberatons do not take place on Facebook. Also, there where to avoid police, places where tear gas and water cannon is lack of conversaton around complex issues such as ethno- were deployed, and arrests made. Many tweets came with links to politcal divides, economic and social policy, judicial system, or images and YouTube videos taken from the streets. While Bersih human rights. 2.0 rally produced over 19,000 tweets within twenty-four hours [48], the number jumped to over 300,000 during the Bersih 3.0 Third, as it makes it more likely for individuals from diferent rally and over 440,000 in the Bersih 4.0. Within only six hours on social groups to link to each other, in the Bersih case Facebook the rally day of 28 April 2012 there were over 58,000 tweets using helped temporally bridging diverse publics in interconnected #Bersih related hashtags transmited online. Similarly, Politweet’s conversatons. The bridging facilitated the emergence of [45]. Twiter data on the Bersih 4.0 in 2015 rally also showed a communites that transcend boundaries of ethnicity and similar patern. Politweet recorded 583,338 tweets about Bersih religions, opening possibilites for mobilizaton across cleavages. from 28 July to 30 August 2015, where 76.6% were made during Indeed, both Bersih 2.0 and Bersih 3.0 exemplify a relatvely the rally on 29-30 August (Figures 1-3). successful mobilizaton “bridging sociopolitcal cleavages” [11]. Relying heavily on Facebook for its mobilizaton, the 2012 Bersih rally brought a diverse mix of about 200,000 Malaysians to the streets of Kuala Lumpur [21]. However, as manifested in the 2015 Bersih 4.0 rally, the unity between various groups was temporal and did not remove racial and ethnic divisions. Unlike previous rallies, Bersih 4.0 was dominated by Chinese Malaysian partcipants. It is estmated that 60% to 80% of the protesters were Chinese [45]. This situaton could be linked to the decision of PAS, whose members are predominantly Malay, not to mobilize its members for Bersih 4.0. PAS’ formal reasons were that's “its members would be too preoccupied with preparatons for party-related events scheduled to take place in the weeks ahead and that the chosen Figure 1 The global heat map of Bersih tweets, 28 April 2012, dates for Bersih 4 […] were inappropriate for being too close to 01:00-7:00 pm. [Independence] Day, August 31” [46]. In announcing its non- partcipaton, the PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang implied that the party was excluded from the planning processes saying that “[…] this Bersih 4 is not headed by us. The agenda is not by us, it’s by others” [47]. Regardless what the actual reasons were, the incident demonstrates that while Bersih actvists were able to utlize Facebook to form a horizontal conversatonal network bridging diverse groups, it is subordinate to the vertcal line of command established within the PAS party. In other words, Facebook facilitated network does enable Bersih partcipants to communicate and interact across party lines and, yet, does not remove the traditonal boundaries of party politcs or racial dynamics. It is important to note that the ruling coaliton, too, used Facebook in its antagonism to Bersih. Among the most actve governmental social media accounts is the Facebook account of Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) or the Malaysian Royal Police which by March 2016 had garnered 1.8 million fans. In 2011, in its atempt to counter the Bersih 2.0 movement, PDRM used Facebook to disseminate a video enttled “Illegal rally Bersih 2.0: A police perspectve of 9th July 2011” documentng various actvites of Figure 2 The heat map of Bersih tweets in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Johor Baru, 28 April 2012, 01:00-7:00 pm. Bersih protesters that were supposedly ‘illegal’. 6 This article is available in: www.globalmediajournal.com ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

protesters and the riot police in various locales. Twiter was used in partcular to render conficts visible, globalizing the spaces of confict that, otherwise, were local. The visibility of conficts is archetypal to “the capacity of social movements to appropriate spaces of hegemonic producton of visibility” [49]. The Malaysian government through the Royal Malaysia Police communicaton channel portrayed Bersih protesters as unclean rioters and law- breakers, and the movement as illegal. By using Twiter with links to images and YouTube videos, Bersih protestors delivered an impressive counter narratve. Twiter was used to ensure that the movement would always be connected to imageries of mass protests in the streets, including blockages, tear gas, skirmishes, and police violence and that this visualizaton would always go natonal and global. This tactc was efectve, albeit temporarily, that the government was lef with a serious dilemma: how to simultaneously control challenges to its legitmacy and at the same tme tolerate protest in order to appear to meet the basic ideals of ‘democratc’ governance. Figure 3 The heat map of Bersih tweets in Central Kuala Lumpur, 28 April 2012, 01:00-7:00 pm. It is apparent that Bersih’s use of Twiter, especially in combinaton with YouTube, has expanded the alternatve space or a counter- Observably, in the Bersih case Twiter primarily served two power sphere in the highly controlled media landscape. However, interrelated and, yet, opposing roles: scaling up the local the state and the ruling coaliton, too, utlize Twiter as their events to a global scale and, at the same tme, intensifying counter-Bersih tool. PDRM, or the Malaysian Royal Police, for the connecton between various locales. Twiter, to a certain example, has a Twiter account to provide updates on policing degree, helped globalizing the movement. As can be seen in actvites and, in the context of Bersih protests, to respond to Figure 1 the patern of Twiter usage shows that Bersih related actvists’ accusatons of abuse. By March 2016, PDRM Twiter tweets in the 2012 rally originated from various places in the account, @pdrmsia, has garnered 144,000 followers. During the world. Outside Malaysia, Malaysian diaspora partcipated in the Bersih 3.0 rally, @pdrmsia delivered “Live from PDRM” tweets Bersih movement by holding rallies in the cites and countries every 10-15 minutes to provide its ‘live reports’ from various they resided as part of Global Bersih movement. During the places in Kuala Lumpur where the rally was held. Responding to accusatons of street violence and police brutality during the Bersih 2.0 rally, there similar protests held in 38 locatons in 16 Bersih 3.0 rally, PDRM actvely used @pdrmsia to deliver its side countries. The numbers increased in Bersih 3.0 to 85 locatons of story by releasing selected videos showing the acts of ‘unlawful in 35 countries. However, a closer look shows that the majority rioters’. of tweets come from Malaysia (67%), with a high concentraton in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, and Penang (Figure 2). Similarly, While Twiter increased opportunites of direct communicatons the majority of tweets during the Bersih 4.0 rally in 2015, too, and politcal exchanges, its usages during the Bersih protests, came from Malaysia. In 2015, however, Twiter was used more by however, did not increase the space for politcal discussions. Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor with 48.6% of Twiter Twiter exchanges revolve around reportng and war tweetng instead of public deliberaton. users residing in both territories. It is important to note here that Selangor is one of three states won in the 2013 general electons Intermodality: Beyond social media under the Pakatan Rakyat alliance; PK won in Selangor with 79% of the votes. With 74% of the populaton resides in urban areas [50], Malaysia is largely urbanized. Understandably, social media was selected When we look closer at the geotagging map (Figure 3), it is as the key tool of Bersih’s informaton disseminaton and revealed that central Kuala Lumpur generated the highest mobilizaton. However, the movement stll needed to reach rural number of tweets, especially in areas where the masses gathered populaton. With the limited or lack of access to the internet and protested, around the Dataran Merdeka, Masjid Jamek, and in rural areas, Bersih actvists utlized other alternatve media Jalan Raja. There were massive Twiter exchanges about places such as fyers and SMS (Short Messaging Services delivering text such as Dataran Merdeka and Masjid Jamek during the protest messages using cellular phones) in their mobilizaton repertoires. and numerous references to place and situaton such as: walk to, escape, run from, turn right, turn around. As Bersih protesters To disseminate digital-based informaton beyond the online realm, used Twiter with smart phones, digital and street actvism in Bersih actvists also initated a Balik Kampung Bawa Berita (bring the news back to your hometown) project, which encouraged online and physical urban spaces became near seamless and Malaysians to share online-based informaton with their families interlocking. and friends in the forms of ofine sof copies (downloaded fles Among the most disseminated tweets were ones that included that are accessible ofine through portable gadgets), hard copies photos and YouTube videos of the confrontaton between (prints), and CDs [36]. Bersih actvists also utlized their corporeal 7 ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

bodies as a node of informaton networks by holding traditonal movement. Meanwhile, the portability and swifness of Twiter ceramah (lectures/speeches) in mosques and community centers made it suitable for real-tme communicaton and broadcastng [50-52]. during the actual event. It also helped to scale up the protest event from the local to natonal and even global level and render Here, the intermodality, the linkages between the digital media the confict visible. and other types of networks, was signifcant. The intermodality of social media, SMS, fyers, CDs, portable gadgets and physical While opening more possibilites for multple spaces of resistance bodies had elevated the ability of the movement in difusing its and imaginaries as well for extending networks of partcipaton messages and expand its network of actvism. In the Bersih case, and mobilizaton, social media also come with limitatons. While actvists used digital media to break the government’s control it served as a fertle ground for establishing the core actvist and monopoly over the producton of narratves and fows of network, partcularly by facilitatng the brokerage, the blogging informaton. However, it is only through intermodality they were was limited in its capacity to expand and grow the network of the able to reach a wide and diverse audience through the cascading movement. Meanwhile, my analysis also shows that while the of informaton from the urban to rural areas using digital media horizontal network structure facilitated by Facebook can increase and its linkages to other media and communicaton networks. partcipaton and enhance organizaton in the practces of social movements, it does not remove the vertcal network structure Despite actvists’ atempts to reach rural areas, Bersih’s main reliance on social media might have contributed to the under- of party politcs. Also, the temporal unity facilitated by Facebook representaton of rural individuals and groups in the movements. does not challenge structural racial and ethnic divisions. For Arguable, this urban tendency was also refected in the result of Bersih partcipants, Twiter was a signifcant tool for sharing and the 2013 General Electon, where votes for Pakatan Rakyat were connectng with each other, distributng counter-narratves (vis- concentrated in urban areas while won most à-vis the hegemonic narratves of the state), and globalizing the votes in rural areas such as large parts of Sabah and Sarawak. movement. It, however, falls short in facilitatng a deliberatve aspect of the movement. Social media helped Bersih partcipants Conclusions to be the informaton producers and distributors and, to a certain degree, bypass state’s monopoly of producton and circulaton From the case of Bersih, we learn that social media is central to of informaton. However, in their atempts to reach and expand actvists’ atempt to reform the electoral system in Malaysia by their networks beyond the urban populaton, they needed to ‘sweeping the unclean’-any electoral misconducts and practces. establish the intermodality of digital media with other media and Social media played numerous, difering roles at various junctures communicaton networks. and stages of the reform movement’s journey. In the beginning of the Bersih journey, the Malaysian blogosphere provided space By identfying and analyzing roles of three dominant social for reformist individuals who shared some radical understanding media platorms in the Bersih movement, in this artcle I reveal and imaginaton of the Malaysian politcs, which was a necessary that social media is both the site and part of the contestatons precursor of the Bersih movement. In its successive developments, of power. Social media is integral to the shaping of Bersih Bersih actvist incorporated Facebook and Twiter as part of the movement’s imaginaries, practces, and trajectories. Further, practces of social movement. My analysis of Bersih shows that the case also shows that as a social and material artfact, every the scalable networking capability of Facebook and its afordance technological platorm such as blogging, Facebook, and Twiter of horizontal discourse network provided a nascent environment has its own socio-politcal propertes that postulate distnctve for widening the practces partcipaton and organizaton of the roles and limitatons for its users.

8 This article is available in: www.globalmediajournal.com ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

26 Gillmor D (2004) We the media: Grassroots journalism by the people, References for the people. Sebastopol CA: O’Reilly. 1 Postll J (2014) A critcal history of internet actvism and social protest 27 Sunstein C (2002) The law of group polarizaton. The Journal of in Malaysia, 1998-2011, Asiascape: Digital Asia 1-2: 78-103. Politcal Philosophy, 10:175-195. 2 Weiss M (2014) Parsing the power of “new media” in Malaysia. J 28 Adamic LA, Glance N (2005) The politcal blogosphere and the 2004 Cont Asia 43: 591-612. U.S. Electon. Proceedings of the 3rd internatonal workshop on Link 3 Lim M (2008) Transient Civic Spaces in Jakarta Indonesia, in M. discovery pp: 36-43. Douglass, K.C. Ho, G.L.Ooi (Eds.) Globalizaton, the City and Civil 29 Lin J, Halavais A, Zhang B (2007) The blog network in America: Blogs Society in Pacifc Asia: The Social Producton of Civic Spaces, London: as indicators of relatonships among US cites. Connectons 17: 15- Routledge pp: 366-396. 23. 4 Sen K, Hill D (2005) The Internet in Indonesia’s New Democracy. 30 Kelly J, Etling B (2008) Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politcs and London: Routledge. Culture in the Persian Blogosphere. 5 O’Shannassy M (2009) Beyond the Barisan Natonal? A Gramscian 31 Lim M (2009) Life is local in the imagined global community: Islam perspectve of the 2008 Malaysian General Electon. Contemporary and politcs in the Indonesian blogosphere. J Med and Religion Southeast Asia: A Journal of Internatonal and Strategic Afair 31: 88- 11:127-140. 109. 32 Agarwal N, Lim M, Wigand RW (2011) Finding her master's voice. 6 Cleaver H (2000) The Zapatstas and the electronic fabric of struggle. Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Informaton 7 Russell A (2005) Myth and the Zapatsta movement: exploring a Systems pp: 898-909. network identty, New Media & Society 7: 559-577. 33 Agarwal N, Lim M, Wigand RW (2012) Raising and Rising Voices. 8 MCMC (2015) Communicaton & Multmedia: Pocket Book of Business & Informaton Systems Engineering 3: 113-126. Statstcs.. 34 Habermas J (1962) The Structural Transformaton of the Public 9 Rahim SA, Pawanteh L (2011) Democratzaton of informaton in Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Malaysia: A response to globalizaton. Asian Social Science 7: 3-11. 35 McAdam D, Tarrow S, Tilly C (2001) Dynamics of Contenton. 10 Abbot JP (2004) The Internet, reformasi and democratzaton in Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Malaysia, in E.T. Gomez (ed.) State of Malaysia. London: Routledge. 36 Tan J, Ibrahim Z (2006) Blogging and Democratzaton in Malaysia: A 11 Weiss M (2012) Politcs in Cyberspace: New Media in Malaysia. New Civil Society in the Making. Petaling Jaya: Strategic Informaton Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stfung. and Research Development Centre. 12 Downing J (2010) The Sage Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. 37 Ulcny B (2008) Modeling Malaysian public opinion by mining in the Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Malaysian blogosphere. 13 Pandi AR (2014) Insurgent space in Malaysia: Hindraf movement, 38 Berita Harian (2007) Demonstrasi jalanan menyusahkan rakyat. new media and minority Indians, IDPR 36: 73-90. 39 Utusan Malaysia (2007) Perhimpunan haram beri persepsi negatf. 14 Uimonen P (2003) Mediated management of meaning: On-line 40 The Star (2007) Road closures, checks cause massive jams in Klang naton building in Malaysia. Global Networks 3: 299-314. Valley. 15 Lim M (2014) Seeing spatally: People, networks and movements in 41 Malaysia Insider (2011) Home Ministry to punish media for ‘false’ digital and urban space. Internatonal Development Planning Review Bersih coverage, 36: 51-72. 42 Lim M (2015) A cyber-urban space odyssey: The spatality of 16 Smelter S (2008) Blogging in Malaysia Hope for a new democratc contemporary social movements. New Geographie 07: 117-123. technology?. Journal of Internatonal Communicaton 14: 28-45. 43 AllFacebook (2008) Malaysia Facebook page statstcs. 17 Rodan G (2005) Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia: Singapore and Malaysia. London: Routledge-Curzon. 44 Goldenberg J, Libai B, Muller E (2001) Talk of the network: A complex systems look at the underlying process of word-of-mouth. Marketng 18 Leong K (2012) The Future of Pakatan Rakyat: Lesson from Selangor. Leters 12: 211-223. Kuala Lumpur: IDEAS. 45 Politweet (2015) Response to the race of Bersih 4 protester by 19 MalaysiaKini (2007) 40,000 protest for free and fair electons. Twiter users in Peninsular Malaysia. 20 Boyle P (2011) Huge rally in Malaysia. Green Lef Weekly, July 17. 46 The Malaysia Online (2015) The Economist: Silver lining for Najib if 21 Boyle P (2013) Malaysia: 150,000 rally for people’s power. Green Lef non-Malays dominate Bersih 4. Weekly, January 26. 47 Sulong Z (2015) PAS begins to feel the chill of isolaton. The Malaysian 22 New Straits Times (2011) Gathering in peace. Insider, August 11. 23 SPR (2013) Electon Results of the 13th Malaysian General Electons. 48 Sherif N (2011) Malaysia’s ‘silent’ awakening. The Naton, New York, 17 August. 24 Tang HW (2009) The networked electorate: The internet and the quiet democratc revoluton. 49 Starr A, Fernandez L, Scholl C (2011) Shutng Down the Streets: Politcal Violence and the Social Control in the Global Era. New York, 25 Sabahan.com (2007) 50 Most infuental blogs in Malaysia. NY: New York University Press. 9 ARCHIVOSGlobal Media DE MEDICINA Journal 2016 ISSNISSN 1550-7521 1698-9465 Vol. 14 No. 27: 51

50 United Natons (2014) World Urbanizaton Prospects: The 2014 Malaysia: An interview with Hishamuddin Rais. Austrian Journal of Revision, Highlights. Department of Economic and Social Afairs, South-East Asian Studies 7:111-120. Populaton Division. 52 Tilly C (2003) The Politcs of Collectve Violence. Cambridge: 51 Khoo YH (2014) Mobilizaton potental and democratzaton Cambridge University Press. processes of the Coaliton for Clean and Fair Electons (Bersih) in

10 This article is available in: www.globalmediajournal.com