Bersih 3.0 rally

Bersih 3.0 rally
Part of Bersih movement
Rallying crowd around the Kuala Lumpur city center
Date	28 April 2012
Location	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Goals	To call for free and fair elections in Malaysia
Status	Concluded
Parties
Bersih Pakatan Rakyat Himpunan Hijau Election Commission Government of Malaysia Royal Malaysia Police RELA Corps
Lead figures
Anwar Ibrahim Ambiga Sreenevasan A. Samad Said Wong Tack Najib Razak Hishammuddin Hussein Ismail Omar
Number
Official estimation: 22,000[1] Independent estimation: 80,000 – 100,000[2] Bersih estimation: 250,000 – 300,000 worldwide[3]
Casualties and losses
60 local demonstrators injured, 512 arrested[4] 20 policemen injured[4]

The Bersih 3.0 rally (also called Sit In rally or Duduk Bantah in Malay) was the largest democratic protest in Malaysia.^[5] This rally was organised as a follow-up to the 2011 Bersih rally and the 2007 Bersih rally. The rally, organised by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), was supported by Pakatan Rakyat, the coalition of the three largest opposition parties in Malaysia along with other small political parties like Parti Sosialis Malaysia and social organisations such as Malaysian Trades Union Congress, Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and Malaysian Bar. In addition, Bersih 3.0 was endorsed by 84 NGOs. In particular, it was joined by Himpunan Hijau (Green Assembly), a civil movement protesting the Lynas rare earth project in Malaysia. In addition to the main rally at Kuala Lumpur, smaller rallies were held in 10 other cities in Malaysia, as well as in 34 other countries. Following the last rally in 2011, the government of Malaysia organised a Public Select Committee (PSC) to look into electoral reforms in Malaysia, which released their proposals in April 2012. Seven of the eight demands by the Bersih have been included in the 22 recommendations submitted by the PSC. PSC Committee member P. Kamalanathan said only one demand by Bersih, on a minimum 21 days campaign period, was not included because it was not suitable to be implemented in Sabah and Sarawak. However, the matter was still being considered, where the current campaign period of seven days had been extended to 10 days.^[6] Bersih claimed that PSC proposals were half-hearted and accused the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC) of being insincere in introducing electoral reforms. Bersih has stated that they would call off the rally if the Malaysian government gave a guarantee that electoral reforms take place before the next Malaysian general elections.