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WE ARE MARCHING NOW: The Inside Story of Bersih 1.0
Bersih was ostensibly all about electoral reform. But it has become so much more than that. For Bersih was – is? – a Big Thing. You don’t bring the nation’s capital to a standstill – five times from 2007 to 2016 – without leaving an enduring impact.
But how did it start, and by whom? (Spoiler alert: It wasn’t Ambiga.) Dozens of people involved in the very first Bersih speak candidly to journalist Danny Lim about the motivations, strategies, surprising cooperations and inevitable compromises that resulted in the movement.
Bersih played a crucial – and very public – role in revolutionising the political landscape in Malaysia. For the genesis of Bersih is the genesis of Pakatan Rakyat, which led to Pakatan Harapan and the end of Barisan Nasional’s 61-year stranglehold on power.
WE ARE MARCHING NOW is a breezy account of who was there, what they did – and where we are now.
But how did it start, and by whom? (Spoiler alert: It wasn’t Ambiga.) Dozens of people involved in the very first Bersih speak candidly to journalist Danny Lim about the motivations, strategies, surprising cooperations and inevitable compromises that resulted in the movement.
Bersih played a crucial – and very public – role in revolutionising the political landscape in Malaysia. For the genesis of Bersih is the genesis of Pakatan Rakyat, which led to Pakatan Harapan and the end of Barisan Nasional’s 61-year stranglehold on power.
WE ARE MARCHING NOW is a breezy account of who was there, what they did – and where we are now.
212 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 7, 2022
Instructive and entertaining, contextualising the Bersih movement for free and fair elections by reference to recent Malaysian political history. It added a lot to my understanding of where we are now — and it’s a real lesson in pacing! Recommended for every Malaysian, also worth the time of anyone interested in the logistics of building grassroots support for a movement and pulling off a large-scale protest in a repressive state.
March 23, 2025
I swear I have heard this line somewhere: “80 percent (or whatever variation of that percentage) of life is logistics.”
Danny Lim’s We are Marching Now is a book about logistics made sexy. Instead of a journalist or a historian, Lim took the role of a screenwriter. He picked his point-of-view characters wisely, focused on scenes and lines instead of a meandering narrative, and knew everything, in the end, had to serve the climax.
While one can’t say there are Sorkin-esque dialogues in this, reading it does feel like watching a Sorkin movie, like The Trial of the Chicago 7.
The part where Ronnie Liu allegedly said “Cut it short lah. Call it Bersih.” reads like the Malaysian version of that Sean Parker scene in The Social Network: “Drop the ‘The’. Just Facebook. It’s cleaner”.
At the back of my head, an unidentifiable but pulsating soundtrack kept playing. One needed music because there is so much build-up going on. Given it’s a widely known event, there is no mystery as to how things turned out. The true anticipation lies in when the reader will reach the ‘We are Marching Now’ moment, and Lim maintains that cinematic tension superbly.
Another thing that makes the book very cinematic is how it treats characters. All contained in the dramatis personae are given their dues. Their personalities successfully conveyed in a few lines and scenes, with their role in the project often mirroring their character and histories.
I particularly love the sampling description of the middle-management politicians (as I said, this book is about logistics):
“They were all mid-tiered party apparatchiks, rising stars junior enough to be untethered from dogma, but with enough clout and influence in their respective central committees to have the ear of the top echelon”.
And then you have the penjahats. The specialists. The one who gave bones and muscles to the connective tissues the professionals drawn in equal parts hope and post-2004 PTSD.
The mixture of both? Alchemy. Lim’s fascination with the characters, their cacophony-turned-chemistry, permeates the story. You care about these people because the author cares about them, too. After all, the reader is told from the outset. The book is as much a process tracing documentary as it is a character study. You can’t cut the calories provided by these ‘larger-than-life’ figures (and they are delightfully not Anwar, Kit Siang, or even Nik Aziz) and expect the full experience.
If I have to summarise, the book is really composed of two parts: the first addresses who set up the sausage factory, and the second talks about how the sausage was made. And contrary to proverbial wisdom, you do want to know how the sausage is made in this case. How it tastes, and its nutritional value isn’t something this story is too concerned about. But as Lim helps us understand while taking the impossible task of entertaining us in the process, there is simply no sausage without the making.
With future instalments hinted, if not promised outright, one wonders how the subsequent batches of sausage were made as the factory changed hands, and the market has gradually lost its appetite to party. But, like it or not, we did not get this far without sausages.
Danny Lim’s We are Marching Now is a book about logistics made sexy. Instead of a journalist or a historian, Lim took the role of a screenwriter. He picked his point-of-view characters wisely, focused on scenes and lines instead of a meandering narrative, and knew everything, in the end, had to serve the climax.
While one can’t say there are Sorkin-esque dialogues in this, reading it does feel like watching a Sorkin movie, like The Trial of the Chicago 7.
The part where Ronnie Liu allegedly said “Cut it short lah. Call it Bersih.” reads like the Malaysian version of that Sean Parker scene in The Social Network: “Drop the ‘The’. Just Facebook. It’s cleaner”.
At the back of my head, an unidentifiable but pulsating soundtrack kept playing. One needed music because there is so much build-up going on. Given it’s a widely known event, there is no mystery as to how things turned out. The true anticipation lies in when the reader will reach the ‘We are Marching Now’ moment, and Lim maintains that cinematic tension superbly.
Another thing that makes the book very cinematic is how it treats characters. All contained in the dramatis personae are given their dues. Their personalities successfully conveyed in a few lines and scenes, with their role in the project often mirroring their character and histories.
I particularly love the sampling description of the middle-management politicians (as I said, this book is about logistics):
“They were all mid-tiered party apparatchiks, rising stars junior enough to be untethered from dogma, but with enough clout and influence in their respective central committees to have the ear of the top echelon”.
And then you have the penjahats. The specialists. The one who gave bones and muscles to the connective tissues the professionals drawn in equal parts hope and post-2004 PTSD.
The mixture of both? Alchemy. Lim’s fascination with the characters, their cacophony-turned-chemistry, permeates the story. You care about these people because the author cares about them, too. After all, the reader is told from the outset. The book is as much a process tracing documentary as it is a character study. You can’t cut the calories provided by these ‘larger-than-life’ figures (and they are delightfully not Anwar, Kit Siang, or even Nik Aziz) and expect the full experience.
If I have to summarise, the book is really composed of two parts: the first addresses who set up the sausage factory, and the second talks about how the sausage was made. And contrary to proverbial wisdom, you do want to know how the sausage is made in this case. How it tastes, and its nutritional value isn’t something this story is too concerned about. But as Lim helps us understand while taking the impossible task of entertaining us in the process, there is simply no sausage without the making.
With future instalments hinted, if not promised outright, one wonders how the subsequent batches of sausage were made as the factory changed hands, and the market has gradually lost its appetite to party. But, like it or not, we did not get this far without sausages.
November 20, 2022
This should be essential reading for younger voters not only to learn how far we've come when it comes to having roughly free and fair elections, but also the importance of mobilising and fighting for reforms. As for me, the biggest takeaway has been how low PAS has sunk after its Bersih gang went to form Amanah, and yet how far Amanah has lagged in galvanising its grassroots compared to PAS. Pakatan Rakyat was a lesson in finding common ground, but most importantly, the need to put that shared ambition above ideological differences.
June 11, 2025
The Bersih movement is an indelible chapter of Malaysian history, of how a grassroots movement for free and fair elections brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets for a singular goal of a better democracy. The events in the book, taking place circa 2004-2008, tells the origin story of Bersih and all the planning that goes into starting an ambitious movement.
December 27, 2023
The book recorded so many stories that I would not have known had the book not been written.
Let's face it: regardless of whether one is a hardcore supporter of any political party (of any side), a fence sitter, or someone who does not care about political play in our country, no one can deny that the BERSIH movement indeed has changed our electoral system and democratic landscape in a very, very significant way.
The book took me down memory lane; our electoral system has improved tremendously, and we have gone a long way from where it was before the movement started. I had forgotten how horrific it had been before phantom voters, sudden blackout at the polling count centre, and mysterious ballot boxes showing up at the very last minute. Yes, there is still a LOT more to improve, but it wouldn't hurt to acknowledge that we are in a much better position today than we were 10 years ago (or 3 general elections ago).
Organising a mass rally in a hostile climate is not easy. I like how the author explained the roles played by countless individuals in his narration of the story of the movement, starting from the major setback in 2004, to the inception of the rally idea, to carrying on the discourse at informal side meetings at Mamak place, to pushing the agenda, to rallying across the country to garner support, to the meticulous planning and execution on the d-day. This book recorded all that amazing behind the scene story. I also like how the author explained the background of the key personalities involved; it became clear how naturally they gravitate towards each other and that their paths cross.
Let's face it: regardless of whether one is a hardcore supporter of any political party (of any side), a fence sitter, or someone who does not care about political play in our country, no one can deny that the BERSIH movement indeed has changed our electoral system and democratic landscape in a very, very significant way.
The book took me down memory lane; our electoral system has improved tremendously, and we have gone a long way from where it was before the movement started. I had forgotten how horrific it had been before phantom voters, sudden blackout at the polling count centre, and mysterious ballot boxes showing up at the very last minute. Yes, there is still a LOT more to improve, but it wouldn't hurt to acknowledge that we are in a much better position today than we were 10 years ago (or 3 general elections ago).
Organising a mass rally in a hostile climate is not easy. I like how the author explained the roles played by countless individuals in his narration of the story of the movement, starting from the major setback in 2004, to the inception of the rally idea, to carrying on the discourse at informal side meetings at Mamak place, to pushing the agenda, to rallying across the country to garner support, to the meticulous planning and execution on the d-day. This book recorded all that amazing behind the scene story. I also like how the author explained the background of the key personalities involved; it became clear how naturally they gravitate towards each other and that their paths cross.
February 6, 2023
Danny Lim's We are marching now is a heartwarming read about the making of the watershed rally in Malaysia. Lim unearthed the backstage story of the planning and implementation of the rally and showed us that what we have taken for granted was actually hard work to the tiniest details.
As I read through the pages, laughing and tearing up during my commute to work, I felt so proud that we have lived through this time with many subsequent Bersih rallies and the various historic events in the past 20 years. This book serves as a reminder that we don't always have democracy and rights served to us on a silver platter, instead, we have to constantly working on it. It is a work in progress with many friends along the way. "It was the most precious time".
Now, I hope the author won't let us wait for too long for the Bersih 2.0 story.
As I read through the pages, laughing and tearing up during my commute to work, I felt so proud that we have lived through this time with many subsequent Bersih rallies and the various historic events in the past 20 years. This book serves as a reminder that we don't always have democracy and rights served to us on a silver platter, instead, we have to constantly working on it. It is a work in progress with many friends along the way. "It was the most precious time".
Now, I hope the author won't let us wait for too long for the Bersih 2.0 story.
July 18, 2023
I currently work in BERSIH so this book was really meaningful to me. I really appreciated how the author has pulled together the messy strings of advocacy and mobilisation and constantly shifting alliances and weaved a coherent and flowing story. The historical narrative peppered with key individual's first hand opinions makes it an interesting and personable read. There were many things I did not know about BERSIH's origins that this book talked about although I know there's a lot more that didn't get included. And as a staff, I felt really happy that this organisation and movement that I care about has been immortalised in such a way. It's a very easy read although the number of characters can make things abit confusing for people with little political/ historical knowledge, but that is to be expected given the number of organisations and individuals involved in the BERSIH movements.
December 17, 2022
There are, to me, two go-to books for Malaysia's post-Mahathirist history: one is Tommy Thomas's "My Story: Justice in the Wilderness" and the other is Danny Lim's "We Are Marching Now". Only one of them is well-written.
Danny Lim's super cool title and cover picture, laden with memories of the day's zeitgeist woo you to turn the inspirational pages of its backstories. Tommy Thomas's lazily put-together cover and title are a Google calendar invite for an undoubtedly equally important but tedious textbook reading.
Danny Lim's super cool title and cover picture, laden with memories of the day's zeitgeist woo you to turn the inspirational pages of its backstories. Tommy Thomas's lazily put-together cover and title are a Google calendar invite for an undoubtedly equally important but tedious textbook reading.
January 24, 2023
A great insiders view of the genesis of Malaysia's electoral reform movement. I learned a great deal about the various histories of many personalities who are still quite prominent today. Also very useful as a test case on how well intentioned, well staffed international media agencies can still get on the ground details wrong.
The reader who is not very familiar with Malaysian politics and personalities will need to keep wikipedia handy.
The reader who is not very familiar with Malaysian politics and personalities will need to keep wikipedia handy.
October 3, 2022
An eminent read for all Malaysians. Amazing storytelling, reads almost like a thriller! I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day.
December 25, 2022
Author made history very entertaining while putting across the significance of these events. Great insight into the political landscape of Malaysia and explains so much about where we are now.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews