Many challenges confront Malaysia’s fragile democracy. Of the six million newly emancipated voters – following constitutional amendments that lowered the voting age to 18 years old and automatically register eligible voters – a sizable chunk has no shared experience or collective memory of past democratic protests and being involved in mass social movements. In the absence of participatory democracy that meaningfully educates and empowers them, many voters are left to passively consume hateful ethnic and religious content on social media channels that pose a risk to democratic backsliding and contribute to political polarisation, as reflected in the 15th General Election. The DEMO project serves as a public intervention to reignite democratic values via documentation of and engagement with the lived experience of movement activists and protest participants in the past 15 years – a crucial period of political awakening in personal and national histories.
Archiving the past, Educating the future
“Where did all the protesters go? What lessons do they derive from their lived experience and how does their participation in demonstrations affect their civic participation and life trajectory?” These questions became the catalysts for DEMO, a project to document the oral history and collective memory of contemporary protests in Malaysia during a critical period of democratic transition (2007-2022).
We have accumulated nearly 50 hours of interviews involving more than 35 activists, organizers and demonstrators from various backgrounds championing a range of issues. Produce a series of articles, an in-person event, culminating in book to investigate recurring themes, patterns, lessons or guide for future activists. and walking tour to lived experience for younger generation.
We asked them about what led them to activism, their lived experience being a part of protest or behind the scene organizing, their encounters with the state apparatus – including intimidations, interrogations and sometimes criminal charges, and the importance of aftercare, especially affecting the mental health of participants in the younger age group.
DEMO serves as a historical record of both the principal and ordinary actors in Malaysia’s protest during a critical period in our history. Our archive of their stories aim to remember their struggle and the times they lived in so as to not have them lost to time, either unconsciously forgotten or deliberately cast aside. Secondly, we want the project’s materials to serve as a resource for future activists and leaders. The interviews conducted aim to capture their entry into politics and activism, their evolving roles and involvement in protest movement, and reflections on its impact and efficacy. Thirdly, the DEMO project attempts to build a theory of protests within a Malaysian context. The totality of this project is expected to connect their struggles to wider national issues, the activists’ life history development and link the said personal and social struggles across this generation of social movements.
Here are the first dozen of articles that have been posted on Pusat Sejarah Rakyat’s website (People’s History Centre, which has kindly agreed to host and archive all the materials for this project).
- DEMO#1 | Asraf Sharafi: Protest Made Me Less Partisan and I Want To Normalize Peaceful Protests : https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo1-asraf-sharafi/
- DEMO#2 | Yeoh Lian Heng: Art Has a Purpose for Social Engagement: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo2-yeoh/
- DEMO#3 | Azura Nasron: In Search of More Sustainable Protest Movements: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo3-azura-nasron/
- DEMO#4 | Sarah Irdina: Care for Communities and Each Other in the Midst of Protests: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo4-sarah-irdina/
- DEMO#5 | Intan Rafiza: Unveiling the Power of Performance Art as Protest: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo5-intan-rafiza/
- DEMO#6 | Gengta Tan: On the Ground as a Protest Paramedic and Accidental Leader: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo6-gengta-tan/
- DEMO#7 | Syahidul Ammar: Krisis COVID Yang Memungkinkan Gerakan: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo7-syahidul-ammar/
- DEMO#8 | Qyira Yusri: From Youth Advocacy to Protests: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo8-qyira-yusri/
- DEMO#9 | Thomas Fann: Civil Society is The Third Force We Need in a Vibrant Democracy: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo9-thomas-fann/
- DEMO#10 | Mukmin Nantang: Dari Pendidikan ke Pergerakan: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo10-mukmin-nantang/
- DEMO#11 | Ili Nadiah Dzulfakar: From Climate Marches to Advocacy: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo11-ili-nadiah-dzulfakar/
- DEMO#12 | Nalini Elumalai: Mobilising to Confront Power in the Streets: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo12-nalini-elumalai/
- DEMO#13 | Mandeep Singh: Over 30 Interrogations, 3 death threats and 5 detentions for being in BERSIH: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo13-mandeep-singh/
- DEMO #14 | Oma Mohd: “Kita nak kesedaran tentang hak semakin meluas”: https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo/demo-14-oma-mohd-kita-nak-kesedaran-tentang-hak-semakin-meluas/
About the project team
Ooi Kok Hin is the executive director of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih). With over eight years of experience in think tank and civil society advocacy, he has written on electoral and party competitions, social movements, identity politics in plural societies and various public policy issues. He studied political science at The Ohio State University (USA) and Waseda University (Japan), where he graduated as salutatorian and won the best thesis in political science award. Most recently, he is the editor of the book, Making Democracy Work: Institutional Reforms for Malaysia.
Jeremy Lim is the secretary and project coordinator for Imagined Malaysia, working on the history of capitalism and popular movements in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. He was also a researcher with five years of experience at the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development and the Jeffrey Cheah Institute for Southeast Asia. He has written on topics such as electoral access, the Lawan Protests, nationalism in Malaysia, political theory and strategy, and more broadly, Malaysia’s political economy. He holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor in Engineering (Mechanical) from Monash University Malaysia.
Zikri Rahman has consistently embarked on collaborations with educational and cultural activist groups in various socio-political projects. Currently, Zikri is the Program Coordinator for Pusat Sejarah Rakyat, an independent archival research and documentation focusing on Malaysia and Singapore’s people’s history. Through Buku Jalanan; a rhizomatic network of street library movement he co-founded in the year 2011, which focuses on decentralizing dan democratising the modes of knowledge production. Other than that, with LiteraCity, he initiated a literary and cultural mapping project in the city of Kuala Lumpur. Zikri is also a writer, independent researcher and curator. His recent projects and publications include the history of student activism, critical educational, art and cultural movement / intervention to the networks of theater practitioners in the inter-Asian context.
For more info about DEMO project, visit https://pusatsejarahrakyat.org/demo
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