Bersih rally: why you do what you do

November 12, 2007

There is always a first for everything. I remember my first time when I came out from the private sector and joined an independent news outfit. I remember going into NGO work, as that only happened some seven months ago. It has been a first of many.

History. How your life intersects that of history past and you yourself are but one small part in the better future that you hope will come.

You read about Elections, about Hartals and Reformasi protests. And one day comes when you say to yourself, “This is your time - not to be a rebel, not to be a trouble-maker, not to be someone who wants to sow disunity and not someone who wants to forment hate.”

So why do you do what you do, when you go down to Masjid Jamek on a Saturday afternoon and be part of a protest?

Why take part in the Bersih rally? But because you want to see change. You need to see change. You want the government of the day to sit up and take notice.

And so you read up on why you are going to do what you do - from a theological perspective. So you bring out Stephen Charles Mott. And you wonder about Roman 13: 1-7 and Revelations 13.

And you gather with fellow believers in a LRT station, pray and tell God that you are not trouble-makers, that you are not there to be disobedient to the government - but that you are acting out of “distress, concern” towards injustice that you see.

All government must care about injustice - even if it in itself is not unjust (I doubt that; the State in our fallen world will tend to be corrupt and evil). And people must care and speak, and show that they brook no injustice.

And so you do pray, and say, “This we do, Oh Lord. For we know this system of government can never be like Your Kingdom. We are not of the world, but in the world. And so we must protest all that has happened. Forgive us - give us strength to be a voice, an instrument to speak out against oppression and injustice.”

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