The Facebook page 100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation has already gathered almost 200,000 supporters in Malaysia a few days after it was created. The resignation of the Prime Minister was demanded on the same day when thousands of people marched in the streets during the Bersih 2.0 rally last July 9.
The Bersih (clean in local language) event was organized to push for electoral reforms. It was declared illegal by the government and police arrested more than one thousand participants in the city. Bersih has now evolved into a political movement which could undermine the leadership of Prime Minister Najib.
Lim Kit Siang writes about the Facebook page
A large part of the virtual congregation is made up of Bersih 2.0 supporters, many of whom have used the official Bersih 2.0 profile badge.
The page was set up on Saturday, the day of the Bersih 2.0 rally, to serve as a platform for netizens to voice their grouses against the government. However, no information is provided on who created the page.
Supporters who expressed surprise with the rapid rise in ‘likes’ are now calling for the target to be increased to a million.
The page has also inspired several other copycat pages on Facebook with similar titles
The Bersih leadership has officially denied any link to the Facebook campaign insisting that the group only wants electoral reforms.
Meanwhile, Malaysian netizens are surprised to see a picture of Queen Elizabeth II wearing a yellow dress when she met Najib at the Buckingham Palace yesterday. Yellow is today’s protest color in Malaysia and police forces are still arresting persons who are wearing yellow Bersih t-shirts.
Here are some twitter reactions
@amanonfire: RT @ericmc90: What's Najib gonna do to Queen Elizabeth II and her yellow dress? :P #bersihstories http://twitpic.com/5q27j3
@lxiongmau: #bersihstories Queen E wore yellow blouse n skirt when she met Najib. Photo in the The Star today!!!!. We have another supporter in UK.
@peacefulman2009: Queen shows support for Bersih. Go Yellow go “@kyip: Kaw kaw Yellow ! Long live Her Majesty #Bersihstories http://t.co/YDlF2et”
@_hafiz: “@wansaiful: Is the Queen trying to make a point re #bersih? :) http://bit.ly/o4dBrn (expand)” I should have not come lol #bersihstories
@cheahcs: @ericmc90 @bersih2 #bersihstories Coincidence or otherwise, the Queen is doing Bersih 2.0 a big favour by donning a yellow dress.
@ajib33: Believe me, People!! We'll never walk alone. Queen Elizabeth II with us.., for real :D #Bersih #Bersihstories http://t.co/g0Oq3jt
@yonghaotan: Queen wearing yellow greeting Najib http://t.co/Nniqzed quick RT before mainstream media photoshop into another color #bersihstories
Jebat Must Die provides a briefer of the Bersih movement. DannyLoHH reminds the police that wearing a Bersih shirt is not a crime in a democracy
Wearing a Bersih shirt or shirt with the word ‘Bersih’, or even just the Bersih logo should not be illegal as we are a democratic country. Wearing a Bersih shirt does not mean we are a member of the ‘outlaw organisation’ nor does it necessarily mean we're providing (material) support the organisation.
It merely shows that we are supporting the cause of the organisation, which is calling for free and fair elections. Are the home minister and police declaring that the call for free and fair elections is illegal?
RantingsbyMM responds to the claim that the Bersih rally gave Malaysia a bad international image
There are also some people claiming that the world now has a bad impression of Malaysia because the foreign media (and the local media for that matter) reported only about the teargassing and water-cannoning. I think people are confusing the government with the people. Yes, the world now has a bad impression of the Malaysian government because it has handled this whole issue so badly. They don’t have the same impression of the Malaysians who stood up for their rights and their cause.
Bhavan Jaipragas, a Singaporean student, witnessed how state forces employed violence during the Bersih march
While Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday claimed that the police had used ‘minimum force on demonstrators’, this was hardly the case from what I witnessed along Jalan Pudu Lama. Policemen chased after unarmed protestors clad in the symbolic yellow of the Bersih 2.0 movement, and others who were draped in the Malaysian flag. On at least one instance, I saw a policeman use his baton to subdue an unarmed protestor trying to evade arrest.