Tens of thousands of people from all corners of society gathered in central Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, July 9, to join the Bersih 2.0 march for clean and fair elections, despite the State’s mass arrests and threats that have been issued on a daily basis leading up to the rally. The democracy protestors were met with tear gas, water cannon and police violence.

But still, they marched. And they were not alone.

Around the world people came together on Saturday to show their support for reform in the Malaysian electoral system to prevent vote buying and secure clean and fair elections. Following the Bersih solidarity protest outside the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok on July 1, 2011, around a dozen activists once again marched up to the Embassy to support the Bersih activists.

An open letter showing the “strongest solidarity support for the struggle of our Malaysian friends for human rights and democracy in Malaysia” was handed over to the Embassy and included a special call for the release of the six people detained without trial under the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crimes) Ordinance on July 2, 2011, for charges to be dropped against all Bersih supporters and participants and finally for the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance.

The Emergency Ordinance is a tool in the hands of the Malaysian Government, frequently used in their campaign of detaining innocent people without trial in order to intimidate the people and to stop the demonstration. The unconstitutional acts of the Government, such as arbitrary detention without trial, are “gross violations of human rights and an affront to justice”, as stated in the open letter at the solidarity protest in Bangkok.

By suppressing the supporters and participants of Bersih 2.0, the Najib Razak-led Government is engaged in severe human rights violations. The rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are both enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and codified in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.

However, Malaysia has not yet ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), codifying these rights under international human rights law. This leaves the protection and monitoring of rights such as freedom of speech and assembly in the hands of Najib Razak and his government, a government which clearly shows no mercy for these rights and does not hesitate to repeatedly violate fundamental human rights.

The 179 out of 188 UN member states who voted in favour of Malaysia’s re-election as a member of the UN Human Rights Council on May 14 2010, may now be seriously questioning their choice. In a statement issued after its re-election, the Malaysian Government claims that the strong support signals “the international community's recognition and appreciation of Malaysia's commitment to respecting and upholding the inalienable and indivisible nature of all human rights at the international and domestic levels”.

It does not matter whether or not this was before or after they arbitrarily detained over a hundred people for wearing yellow shirts and wanting to protest peacefully for democracy and later did all in their power to crack down on the Bersih rally by mass arrests and tear gas.  If anything, the Government’s statement now seems even more hypocritical.

The point has been clear from the beginning: members of the Council have the responsibility of “upholding the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights”. Arbitrarily arresting more than a thousand people for marching for democracy or simply possessing anything related to the democracy rally, and using tear gas and water cannons undoubtedly does not fulfil these criteria and severely suppresses the people of Malaysia. 

But still, they marched. And they will keep on marching, with support from around the world.