Location: Paraslides Park, Santa Monica, California, USA
Time: 28 Apr, 2pm -8UTC
Number of participants: 67
We had 67 sign-ins at the Los Angeles Bersih 3.0 at Santa Monica, but the largest number of simultaneous presence probably hovered around 50. People came from all over the LA metro area, and there was a healthy mix of new people as well as familiar faces from Bersih 2.0. There was quite a bit of chattering among the participants; between developments at KL and problems with the government, many were simply delighted at being able to reconnect with so many fellow Malaysian in the area. We captured an assortment of different views from the participants through videos and interviews.
We had a briefing, summarizing the most consequential problems with the system and the violence that happened in KL, then marched from Palisades Park to the Santa Monica Pier. The march was accompanied by chants of “Hidup Bersih” and “Free Malaysia” among others, drawing the attention of many tourists. Along the way, we met many strangers from the area, most of them have nothing but words of encouragement for our efforts. Among the notable ones was a Korean man who commented: “We did this a generation ago, it’s good to see you people are doing it now.” We had a surprise encounter with the local Occupy LA chapter, who gave us a warm welcome as well as describing their efforts as “attacking a different part of the problem”. We took pictures on the pier with beautiful Santa Monica Beach in the background, then marched back and finished the day singing Negaraku, our national anthem at Palisades Park.
